Matthew Kroenig

Matthew Kroenig is a Professor in the Department of Government and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. A 2019 study in Perspectives on Politics ranked him as one of the top 25 most-cited political scientists of his generation.

Dr. Kroenig is the author or editor of eight books, including The Return of Great Power Rivalry: Democracy versus Autocracy from the Ancient World to the US and China (Oxford University Press, 2020), which was Amazon's #1 New Release in International Relations. The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy: Why Strategic Superiority Matters (Oxford University Press, 2018) was selected by the US Air Force for its professional reading list and was translated into Chinese and Korean. Exporting the Bomb: Technology Transfer and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons (Cornell University Press, 2010) received the International Studies Association Best Book Award, Honorable Mention.

His articles have appeared in many publications, including: American Political Science Review, Annual Review of Political Science, Foreign Affairs, International Organization, International Security, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Strategic Studies, Politico, Security Studies, Strategic Studies Quarterly, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, among others. He is a columnist at Foreign Policy. Dr. Kroenig provides regular commentary for major media outlets, including PBS, CBS, BBC, CNN, Fox News, NPR, and C-SPAN.

Dr. Kroenig was appointed by the US Congress in 2022 to serve as a commissioner on the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. He has previously served in the Department of Defense. He was a major contributor to the 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review. In 2005, he was a principal author of the first-ever, US-government-wide strategy for deterring terrorist networks. For this work, he received the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Award for Outstanding Achievement. He is a featured character in The New York Times bestselling book, Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign against Al Qaeda, by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker. He has testified before Congress and regularly consults with U.S. and allied governments. 

Dr. Kroenig is also the Vice President and Senior Director of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He is Henry Kissinger's designated literary representative, responsible for managing access to his vast collection of personal papers. He has held the Stanton Nuclear Security Fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations, a postdoctoral fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Security at Harvard University, and a predoctoral fellowship at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.

He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and holds an MA and PhD in political science from the University of California at Berkeley. He lives with his wife and two children in McLean, Virginia. Follow him on Twitter @matthewkroenig.