Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow and director of research in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in U.S. defense strategy and budgets, the use of military force, and American national security policy. He directs the Strobe Talbott Center on Security, Strategy and Technology, and is the inaugural holder of the Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy. He co-directs the Africa Security Initiative as well. He is an adjunct professor at Columbia and Georgetown universities, and a member of the Pentagon鈥檚 Defense Policy Board; he was also a member of the external advisory board at the Central Intelligence Agency from 2011-12. In 2023, O鈥橦anlon published a book entitled 鈥Military History for the Modern Strategist: America鈥檚 Major Wars since 1861.鈥 The paperback version of the book with a preface covering the American Revolution as well as the declared wars of the 19th century came out in 2024.
O鈥橦anlon鈥檚 other books include 鈥淭he Art of War in an Age of Peace: U.S. Grand Strategy and Resolute Restraint鈥 (Yale, 2021); 鈥淒efense 101: Understanding the Military of Today and Tomorrow鈥 (Cornell, 2021); 鈥淭he Senkaku Paradox: Risking Great Power War over Limited Stakes (Brookings, 2019); 鈥淏eyond NATO: A New Security Architecture for Eastern Europe鈥 (Brookings, 2017); 鈥淭he Future of Land Warfare鈥 (Brookings, 2015); 鈥淪trategic Reassurance and Resolve: U.S.-China Relations in the 21st Century鈥 (with Jim Steinberg, Princeton University Press, 2014); 鈥淐risis on the Korean Peninsula鈥 (with Mike Mochizuki, McGraw-Hill, 2003); 鈥淲inning Ugly: NATO鈥檚 War to Save Kosovo鈥 (with Ivo Daalder, Brookings, 2000); and several other books. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, Survival, Washington Quarterly, Joint Forces Quarterly, and International Security, among other publications; he has also written hundreds of op-eds in major newspapers. Recent articles include a detailed analysis of the U.S. defense budget, a military assessment of a possible Chinese blockade of Taiwan, and a proposal with Georgetown Professor Lise Howard for a new security architecture for eastern Europe. O鈥橦anlon has appeared on television or spoken on the radio more than 4,000 times since September 11, 2001.
O’Hanlon was an analyst at the Congressional Budget Office from 1989-1994, where he won the Director鈥檚 Award in 1992. His doctorate from Princeton is in public and international affairs, where he was awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship. His bachelor’s and master’s degrees, also from Princeton, are in the physical sciences. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1982-1984, where he taught college and high school physics in French. Earlier, he worked on a dairy farm in Upstate New York, where he grew up. During college, he attempted (unsuccessfully) with a team of Princeton experimental physicists in the 鈥淕ravity Group鈥 to disprove Einstein鈥檚 General Theory of Relativity.
Affiliations:
- Columbia University, adjunct professor
- George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs, professional lecturer
- Georgetown University, Center for Security Studies, adjunct professor
- U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Policy Board, member
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Current Positions
- Adjunct Professor, Columbia University
- Professional Lecturer of International Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University
- Adjunct Professor, Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University
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Past Positions
- Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins University
- Defense and Foreign Policy Analyst, National Security Division, Congressional Budget Office (1989-1994)
- Research Assistant, Institute for Defense Analyses
- Peace Corps Volunteer, Congo
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Education
- Ph.D. (1991), M.A. (1988), M.S.E. (1987), B.A. (1982), Princeton University