Retired Lieutenant General Charles Hooper Named Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center

Cambridge, MA – Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has named Lieutenant General Charles Hooper (U.S. Army-Retired) a non-resident Senior Fellow with the Center’s Avoiding Great Power War Project. In his final military assignment, General Hooper was Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, responsible for the overseas sales of all weapons, military equipment, and logistics support for the U.S. government. He is one of the nation’s foremost experts on China’s military/defense industries and U.S.-China military relations, and on U.S. security assistance and foreign military sales.

“We are honored to welcome General Hooper to our community,” said Belfer Center Director Ash Carter. “His invaluable experience with China’s defense industry and military relations with the U.S. will contribute significantly not only to the Center’s research but also to a broader understanding of this important relationship by students, faculty, and fellows across Harvard.”

At the Belfer Center, Hooper will work closely with Douglas Dillon Professor of Government Graham Allison, who leads the Center’s Avoiding Great Power War Project.  

“We are fortunate to have a former student who has made us proud coming home to HKS and the Belfer Center,” Allison said. “Hoop’s research will focus on security cooperation as an instrument in a coherent American Indo-Pacific strategy.”

"I am incredibly humbled and honored to ‘come home’ and rejoin the Harvard Kennedy School and Belfer Center family,” said Hooper. “I look forward to exploring the evolution of our uniquely American approach to security cooperation and its role in the Indo-Pacific Region."

LTG Hooper served with the 82nd Airborne Division, taught at the Naval Postgraduate School, and managed China and Taiwan policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. A fluent Chinese linguist, he served seven years in Beijing, including as the U.S. Defense Attaché to China. Hooper was also the senior Department of Defense strategist for Africa and the senior U.S. military officer in Egypt.

Hooper has a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy and a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard Kennedy School. Also at Harvard, he was a Senior Research Fellow with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. 

Contact: Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs: Sharon_Wilke@hks.harvard.edu | 617-495-9858.