Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy

Advancing understanding in geostrategy, international security, and global politics

Dr. Jon B. Alterman was named to the Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy in 2012. CSIS established the chair in 2003 to advance understanding in the fields of geostrategy, international security, and global politics. Zbigniew Brzezinski was the nation’s 11th national security adviser, and after leaving that post he spent more than three decades at CSIS. Reflecting Brzezinski’s personal achievements during a long career that included public service, teaching, and writing, CSIS awards the chair to a leading scholar-practitioner in global affairs and international strategy.

Much of Dr. Alterman’s scholarship is grounded in decades of study of the Middle East, yet in recent years he has advanced cross-regional research linking his Middle East expertise to emerging global issues. Currently, Dr. Alterman’s work for the Brzezinski Chair focuses on three main themes:

Dr. Alterman’s early work on China, the United States, and the Middle East in the mid-2000s anticipated the growing Middle Eastern energy trade with Asia and the increasing importance of the Middle East to Chinese economic political, and military strategy. As the U.S. strategic posture balances away from a Middle East focus, Russia plays a greater role in regional conflicts, and the Global South emerges as a key player in international affairs, the Brzezinski Chair is working to understand how regional states are responding to Great Power efforts to shape the global commons and to anticipate future challenges to global order. You can read some of Alterman’s work on China-Middle East ties here, and the Brzezinski Chair’s latest report on global order here.

In recent years, states have increasingly turned to the capture or wrongful detention of Western citizens as an asymmetrical tool of coercion against the United States and its allies. The resultant “hostage diplomacy” is a critical bipartisan issue. Dr. Alterman helped launch the CSIS Commission on Hostage Taking and Wrongful Detention to study the efficacy of policy responses to hostage taking, develop new tools to empower U.S. officials and the families of hostages, and deter future hostage taking. Find out more about the Commission here.

The number of independent states has expanded exponentially since World War I. But many independence movements have also failed, with broader implications for regional stability and international cooperation. The Brzezinski Chair has conducted research on the factors contributing to the success or failure of struggles for self-determination across the world. Read the latest book from the Brzezinski Chair on independence movements here.

Latest Work

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Books and Reports

Dr. Alterman’s work tackles broader themes than just what goes on within the Middle East. Featured here are major, produced written products that look at big picture trends, touching on U.S. engagement with China and Europe, as well as Russia’s role as a spoiler.

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Commentary

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Dr. Alterman often writes short, op-ed style pieces on geostrategic issues involving the United States, the Middle East, and often other great powers in the region. To receive these each month, please subscribe to the Middle East Notes and Comment newsletter.

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All Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy Content

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Report Launch: "The Other Side of the World"

The U.S.-led order in the Middle East has enabled China to reap economic benefits without contributing to security costs. This dynamic could be in jeopardy if the Trump administration decides to shift towards a more transactional foreign policy in the region, argued experts at the launch of the CSIS Brzezinski Institute’s new report “The Other Side of the World” on April 24, 2017. Anne Gearan, the Washington Post’s political correspondent, moderated a panel discussion between the CSIS Brzezinski Chair and Middle East program director Jon Alterman, the CSIS Simon Chair in Political Economy Matthew Goodman, and the director of CSIS’s Alliances and American Leadership project, Andrew Shearer.

Event — April 24, 2017

Middle East Notes and Comment: Bombs, Bullets, and Leverage

The wide array of military-led republics in the Middle East would certainly have you believe otherwise, as would many of the monarchies that would prefer a world in which politics play a small role. Yet, the “win” column for military victories is small. Arguably, the Jordanian army defeated a Palestinian state-within-a-state in 1970, and Israel ended a similar Palestinian presence in southern Lebanon in 1982 (inadvertently ushering in an 18-year Israeli intervention). Each solved a particular problem for an individual government, but neither brought a conflict to a close.

Newsletter by Jon B. Alterman — April 12, 2017

The Iranian Paradox

Iran’s politics are imperfectly understood, both in the West and in Iran itself. Yet, a basic outline does seem clear. 

Report by Jon B. Alterman — March 23, 2017

Half-Measures in Syria

If you rank the inputs and outputs for countries involved in the Syria conflict right now, you end up with some interesting numbers. Turkey and Iran are making major investments of money and lives, and they have a major impact on the course of the conflict.

Commentary by Jon B. Alterman — February 15, 2017

Middle East Notes and Comment: Half-Measures in Syria

Russia’s political goals in Syria seem to be quite modest: The government seeks to shore up the Syrian regime. To a large degree, especially after the fall of rebel portions of Aleppo, that mission has been accomplished.

Newsletter by Jon B. Alterman — February 14, 2017