Press Release
from Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Cambridge, MA – Kurt Campbell, Chairman and CEO of The Asia Group, LLC, and former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, has been named a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Widely credited with framing the Obama administration’s rebalance to Asia, Campbell will focus his research at the Belfer Center on his forthcoming book, The Pivot: America’s Rediscovery of the Asia-Pacific Century.
“It is difficult to overstate the importance of the Asia-Pacific to America’s national security and prosperity,” said Belfer Center Director Graham Allison. “It is even more difficult to overstate Kurt Campbell’s qualifications on this critical subject. Many have studied U.S. foreign policy toward Asia. Far fewer have set it. Kurt has done both with high honors.”
“I am so pleased to join the Belfer Center and to engage with its enormously talented community of scholars,” Campbell said. “As a former professor here, I know how stimulating Harvard is, and I am looking forward to illuminating discussions with faculty, fellows, and students as I research my new book.”
Along with Michèle Flournoy (also a Center Senior Fellow), Campbell co-founded in 2007 the Center for a New American Security. Earlier, he was founder and chairman of StratAsia, a strategic advisory and consultancy. In addition, he was Senior Vice President, Director of the International Security Program, and Henry A. Kissinger Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Campbell was previously Associate Professor of Public Policy and International Relations at Harvard Kennedy School.
Before serving from 2009 to 2013 as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Campbell was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia and the Pacific, and Director on the National Security Council Staff. For his diplomatic service, Campbell has received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award and top honors from Australia, New Zealand, Korea, and Taiwan.
He is the author or editor of ten books, including Difficult Transitions: Why Presidents Fail in Foreign Policy at the Outset of Power. He is a columnist for the Financial Times and a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Trilateral Commission.
He received his B.A. from the University of California, San Diego and his Doctorate in International Relations from Brasenose College at Oxford University, where he was a Distinguished Marshall Scholar.