Ryan C. Berg

Director, Americas Program
Ryan C. Berg

Ryan C. Berg is director of the Americas Program and head of the Future of Venezuela Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also an adjunct professor at the Catholic University of America and a course coordinator at the United States Foreign Service Institute. His research focuses on U.S.-Latin America relations, strategic competition and defense policy, authoritarian regimes, armed conflict and transnational organized crime, and trade and development issues. Previously, Dr. Berg was a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he helped lead its Latin America Studies Program, as well as visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Changing Character of War Programme. Dr. Berg was a Fulbright scholar in Brazil and is a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member. He has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed academic and policy-oriented journals, including The Lancet, Migration and Development, the SAIS Review of International Affairs, and the Georgetown Security Studies Review. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, CNN.com, Los Angeles Times, and World Politics Review, among other outlets. He routinely testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Dr. Berg obtained a PhD and an MPhil in political science and an MSc in global governance and diplomacy from the University of Oxford, where he was a Senior Hulme Fellow. Earlier, he obtained a BA in government and theology from Georgetown University. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and is conversational in Slovenian.

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Pentagon Announces a New Counternarcotics Task Force in the Caribbean

CSIS Americas Program experts explain the significance of the Department of Defense’s establishment of a new Counternarcotics Task Force and consider how this reflects the Trump administration’s national security priorities.

Critical Questions by Ryan C. Berg, Christopher Hernandez-Roy, Henry Ziemer, Rubi Bledsoe, and Isabel Teran — October 23, 2025

35 West

China’s Expanding Footprint in Mexico

In this episode Ryan C. Berg sits down with Heidi Jane Smith to discuss China's investments in Mexico.

Podcast Episode by Ryan C. Berg — October 2, 2025

CSIS 35 West
Audio Briefs

Hearts, Minds, and Uniforms: New Data Reveals China and Russia’s Growing Military Diplomacy Footprint in Latin America and the Caribbean

An audio version of “⁠Hearts, Minds, and Uniforms: New Data Reveals China and Russia’s Growing Military Diplomacy Footprint in Latin America and the Caribbean⁠,” a new Commentary by CSIS’s Ryan C. Berg, Christopher Hernandez-Roy, Jessie Hu, and Henry Ziemer. This audio was generated with text-to-speech by Eleven Labs. 

Podcast Episode by Ryan C. Berg, Christopher Hernandez-Roy, Jessie Hu, and Henry Ziemer — September 22, 2025

Audio Briefs
State of Play

What can U.S. pressure on Venezuela achieve?

Mark Cancian and Ryan Berg join Will to discuss what U.S. military buildup tells us about its implications for Venezuela and more.

Podcast Episode by Will Todman, Ryan C. Berg, and Mark F. Cancian — September 18, 2025

Photo: iLab/CSIS