Sam Brannen

Sam Brannen is a fellow with the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan, nonprofit organization. At CSIS, he works on projects related to defense strategy and policy, Middle East security (especially U.S.-Turkey and U.S.-Turkey-Iraq issues), and U.S. national security reform. He is a frequent media commentator and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, Al Jazeera, and NPR. In recent years, he has spent time in both Iraq and Afghanistan in support of independent assessment missions.Previously, Brannen was a policy planner in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Prior to his time in government, he was assistant director of the CSIS Global Strategy Institute, where he supported the Seven Revolutions project and was responsible for overseeing research on long-range global trends. Brannen holds a B.A. in political science from Trinity University and an M.A. from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University.