The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. From its founding in 1962 until 1987, it was an affiliate of Georgetown University, initially named the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University. The center conducts policy studies and strategic analyses of political, economic and security issues throughout the world, with a focus on issues concerning international relations, trade, technology, finance, energy and geostrategy.
Stephen Anthony Cambone was the first United States Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, a post created in March 2003. Cambone first came to the attention of the public at large during the testimony of Major General Antonio Taguba before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, where he disputed the General's statement that prison guards were under the effective control of military intelligence personnel and interrogators. Cambone resigned at the beginning of 2007 and was replaced by James R. Clapper, Jr., former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Cambone was associated with the Project for the New American Century, participating in the study which resulted in the writing of the report Rebuilding America's Defenses.
Michèle Angélique Flournoy is an American defense policy advisor and former government official. She was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy under President Bill Clinton and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under President Barack Obama.
Lloyd James Austin III is a retired United States Army four-star general who has served as the 28th and current United States secretary of defense since January 22, 2021.
Kurt Michael Campbell is an American diplomat and businessman serving as the United States deputy secretary of state since 2024. He previously served as National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific from 2021 to 2024. In this capacity, Campbell had been referred to as the Biden administration's "Asia coordinator" or "Asia czar"—chief architect of Joe Biden's Asia strategy.
Raymond Francis DuBois Jr. is a private consultant in national security and defense policy and also a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan think-tank in Washington, D.C. At CSIS he focuses on international security policy, civil-military relations, defense management reform, and Joint Professional Military Education. His expertise is in Defense Department organization, management and reform; land forces tactical and non-tactical systems; international and domestic installations and environmental issues; base realignment and closure; National Guard and Reserves issues; stability operations and reconstruction; continuity of business operations and crisis management. He was a member of the Defense Health Board and its NCR BRAC Health Systems Advisory Committee in 2006 to 2009. DuBois was a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Stabilizing Fragile States. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the United States Institute of Peace, a member of the Princeton University ROTC Board of Directors. He has spoken at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, at the European Forum Alpbach 2008 in Austria, at the Marine Corps University, Quantico, Virginia, and before audiences of the National Defense Industry Association and the Association of the United States Army.
Christopher Karl Mellon, is a private equity investor, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and later for Security and Information Operations. He formerly served as the Staff Director of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He is a member of the influential Mellon family out of the Greater Pittsburgh area. Mellon has lobbied for U.S. government investigations into UFO/UAP.
The Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (SAF/AQ) is a civilian position in the Department of the Air Force that is appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate. This position is established under Title 10 US Code Section 9016 and is one of five Assistant Secretary positions under the Secretary of the Air Force. The Assistant Secretary reports to the Secretary of the Air Force.
The Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, also referred to as the Defense Policy Board, is a federal advisory committee to the United States Department of Defense. Its charter is available online through the office of the Director of Administration and Management of the Department of Defense. The committee type is discretionary.
John F. Kirby is a retired United States Navy rear admiral serving as White House National Security Communications Advisor since 2024. He previously served in the Biden administration as Pentagon Press Secretary and Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs from 2021 to 2022 and as Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House from 2022 to 2024. He worked as a military and diplomatic analyst for CNN from 2017 to 2021. He served in the Obama administration as Pentagon Press Secretary from 2013 to 2015 and as the spokesperson for the United States Department of State and Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from 2015 to 2017.
Derek Chollet is an American foreign policy advisor and author currently serving as the counselor of the United States Department of State. Previously, Chollet was the executive vice president for security and defense policy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. From 2012 to 2015, Chollet was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, where he managed U.S. defense policy involving Europe, NATO, the Middle East, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere for Secretaries of Defense Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel.
Ezra Cohen, also known as Ezra Cohen-Watnick, is an American intelligence official who served as the acting under secretary of defense for intelligence during the Trump Administration. He previously served as the acting assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, national security adviser to the United States attorney general and as a former senior director for intelligence programs for the United States National Security Council (NSC).
Colin Hackett Kahl is an American political scientist who served as under secretary of defense for policy in the Biden administration from April 28, 2021, to July 17, 2023. Previously, he served as national security advisor to the vice president under then-Vice President Joe Biden (2014–2017). After the Obama administration, Kahl served as a Steven C. Házy Senior Fellow at Stanford University.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is an office within the United States Office of the Secretary of Defense that investigates unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and other phenomena in the air, sea, and/or space and/or on land: sometimes referred to as "unidentified aerial phenomena" or "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAP). Its first director was physicist Sean Kirkpatrick, and its current acting director is Tim Phillips who reports to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.
The United States Department of Defense China Task Force was announced by the United States president Joe Biden on February 10, 2021. Biden said the task force would help the United States "win the competition of the future" with China. According to the DOD News service, the task force will be led by Ely Ratner, an assistant to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III. On the day the task force was announced, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said that China sought cooperation with the United States, but that confrontation would be "definitely catastrophic for both countries and the world."
Mara Elizabeth Karlin is an American foreign policy and defense advisor. In April 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Karlin to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans and Capabilities. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by voice vote on August 9, 2021. Previously, she served as the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. In her role, she served as the main advisor to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on U.S. security policies related to every country in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Eurasia, and the Western Hemisphere. Her portfolio included shaping U.S. defense policy related to NATO.
Alexandra Nicole Baker, known as Sasha Baker, is an American policy advisor who currently serves as deputy under secretary of defense for policy at the Department of Defense.
Heather A. Conley is president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) in Washington, D.C.
Zack Cooper is an American national security and foreign policy analyst currently serving as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University, and a lecturer in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He also serves on the advisory boards of the Open Technology Fund and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance.
