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 two 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.

Contact Information

Media Queries

Featured Project

Featured Work

Photo: XNY/Star Max/GC Images

Photo: XNY/Star Max/GC Images

The United States Cannot Go It Alone in Venezuela

Decisive U.S. action in Venezuela has showcased U.S. power but risks provoking long-term resistance from adversaries, hedging by partners, and anxiety among allies. Without coalition-building and post-crisis leadership, short-term success could erode U.S. influence.

Listen to Audio

Commentary by Jon B. Alterman — January 5, 2026

See all work by the Brzezinski Chair

All Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy Content

Filter by

1 - 10 of 259 results

The United States Cannot Go It Alone in Venezuela

Decisive U.S. action in Venezuela has showcased U.S. power but risks provoking long-term resistance from adversaries, hedging by partners, and anxiety among allies. Without coalition-building and post-crisis leadership, short-term success could erode U.S. influence.

Commentary by Jon B. Alterman — January 5, 2026

Audio Briefs

The United States Cannot Go It Alone in Venezuela

An audio version of “The United States Cannot Go It Alone in Venezuela,” a new Commentary by CSIS’s Jon B. Alterman. This audio was generated with text-to-speech by Eleven Labs. 

Podcast Episode by Jon B. Alterman — January 5, 2026

Audio Briefs

Framing a U.S. Approach to the West Bank

Issues of the West Bank's current status are uniquely difficult because they combine ancient historical claims, modern nationalism, differing religious worldviews, and contemporary security dilemmas.

Congressional Testimony by Jon B. Alterman — December 10, 2025

Mexico: A Pivotal State on the Global Stage

Mexico straddles between the Global North and Global South, leveraging deep integration with the United States while guarding its sovereignty. This chapter explores how history, inequality, and geopolitics shape Mexico’s quest for strategic autonomy on the global stage.

Brief by Ryan C. Berg, Rubi Bledsoe, and Michael Ferguson — December 2, 2025

Strategic Ambiguity: Erdoğan’s Turkey in a Multipolar World

Turkey’s push for strategic autonomy sees it balancing NATO ties, courting Russia and China, and asserting regional influence, showing how Erdoğan’s Turkey both shapes and is shaped by a rising multipolar world.

Brief by Jeffrey Mankoff and Max Bergmann — December 2, 2025

Fulcrums of Order: Rising States and the Struggle for the Future

As global power diffuses and multilateralism fractures, a set of rising states increasingly claim the mantle of the “Global South,” reshaping institutions, challenging Western dominance, and forcing the United States to rethink how it engages a rapidly changing world.

Report by Jon B. Alterman and Lily McElwee — December 2, 2025

India’s Future Strategic Choices: Complications of Mass

India is reviving old tools in a new global order, leveraging its history, economic rise, and broadening diplomacy to claim leadership of the Global South while navigating intensifying great-power competition.

Brief by Richard M. Rossow — December 2, 2025