The National Interest is a publication that writes on topics related to U.S politics including national security, defense, and foreign policy. The publication was founded in 1985 by Irving Kristol and Owen Harries, but since 2000 it has been owned and operated by the think tank Center for the National Interest (CFNI). ¹

Activities

The National Interest is an online publication that writes on topics related to U.S foreign policy. It claims to focus on “realism,” or a school of thought it connects to 19^th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, 19^th-century Prussian and later German politician Otto von Bismarck, and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. It publishes articles and essays written by government officials, journalists, and academic staff. ¹

The group claims to produce and operate smaller online blog publications to discuss U.S foreign policy. These include The Skeptics, which advocates for a “restrained” foreign policy; The Buzz, which discusses geopolitical relations between Russia and China; Silk Road Rivalries, which writes about Central Asia-related topics; Lebanon Watch, which covers Middle East affairs; and Korea Watch, which writes on relations between North and South Korea.  ²

Staff

Jacob Heilbrunn is the editor of The National Interest as of 2024. He is also a senior fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and is the author of America Last: The Right’s Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators. ¹ Heilbrunn previously worked as a senior editor at The New Republic and was an editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times. ³

Harry Kazianis is the executive editor of The National Interest and is the senior director of national security affairs at the Center for the National Interest (CFNI). Kazianis previously worked as president of the Rogue States Project, as senior communications manager of foreign policy at the Heritage Foundation, and as a national security affairs fellow at the Potomac Foundation. ⁴

Board of Directors

Drew Guff is the board chair for The National Interest and the Center for the National Interest (CFNI). Guff is a founding partner of private equity firm Siguler Guff & Company. Guff is also a board member of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association, the 20-20 Investment Association, and the U.S.-Russia Business Council. He is also a member of the President’s Advisory Group at the Council on Foreign Relations, is a council member of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and is a trustee at the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers. ⁵

Paul Saunders is the president of The National Interest and CFNI as well as a senior advisor at the Energy Innovation Reform Project. Saunders previously served as the senior advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs during the George W. Bush Administration. ⁶

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger served as honorary chair from 1994 until his death in 2023. ¹

Advisory Council

Richard Burt is chair of the advisory council for The National Interest. He is also the U.S. chair of Global Zero, the managing director at McLarty Associates, and is a member of Consensus for American Security, an initiative of the American Security Project. He previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany in the Reagan administration and was a national security correspondent for the New York Times. ⁷

Graham Allison is the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard University and is a board member for the Center for the National Interest (CFNI). Allison previously served as assistant secretary of defense during the first Clinton administration and was the director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Allison was previously a board member for the Council on Foreign Relations, the Getty Oil Company, Belco Oil and Gas, Chase Bank, Chemical Bank, and the International Energy Corporation. ⁸

Ahmed Charai is the chair and CEO of Global Media Holding as well as the publisher for weekly Moroccan newspaper L’Observateur. Charai also serves as president of MED Radio and MEDTV networks, and is the board chair for Arabic daily newspaper Al-Ahdath al-Maghrebiya. He is a board member for the Atlantic Council, the Center for the National Interest, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the International Crisis Group, the International Center for Journalists, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. ⁹

Evan Greenberg is the chair and CEO of Chubb Limited and the Chubb Group. Greenberg was previously the president and COO of the American International Group. Greenberg sits on the boards of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Asia Society, and the National Geographic Society. Greenberg also chairs the National Committee on United States-China Relations. ¹⁰

Gary Hart, a former Democratic U.S. Senator from Colorado, is chair emeritus of the American Security Project as well as the co-chair of the US-Russia Commission. He is also the board chair of both the International Security Advisory Board of the U.S Department of State and the Threat Reduction Advisory Council at the U.S Department of Defense. Hart is a former vice-chair of the Secretary of Homeland Security’s Advisory Council, was a former co‑chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century, and previously was president of Global Green. ¹¹

Zalmay Khalilzad is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a board member for CFNI. He previously served as the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the United Nations (UN) in the George W. Bush administration. Khalilzad was a former board member for the National Endowment for Democracy, the United States Institute for Peace, America Abroad Media, the RAND Corporation’s Middle East Studies Center, and the Atlantic Council. ¹²

Kishore Mahbubani is a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. Mahbubani was formerly a member of the Singapore Foreign Service. ¹³

John Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison distinguished service professor of political science at the University of Chicago. Mearsheimer is a former research fellow at the Brookings Institution and was previously a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard. ¹⁴

Richard Plepler is the founder and CEO of EDEN Productions and sits on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations. Plepler is a former chair and CEO of HBO. ¹⁵

Ruth Wedgwood is the Edward B. Burling professor of international law and diplomacy as well as the director of the program on international law at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Wedgwood is also a member of the Nuclear Security Working Group, the Atlantic Council, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the American Law Institute, and the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a distinguished fellow at the Center for National Security Law at the University of Virginia. ¹⁶

Robinson West is a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Energy and National Security Program and is co-chair of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. West also serves a member of both the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations. West is the founder and former chair of PFC Energy and previously served as assistant secretary of the interior for policy, budget, and administration during the Reagan administration. West previously sat on the board of the United States Institute of Peace, was formerly the vice chair of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, and is a previous trustee of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Liability Fund. ¹⁷

Dov S. Zakheim is a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a senior fellow for the CNA Corporation, and vice chair of the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Board of Trustees. Zakheim previously worked as senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, was the undersecretary of defense and CFO at the U.S Department of Defense, and was formerly an adjunct scholar for the Heritage Foundation. As of 2024, Zakheim is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. ¹⁸

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2. “Blog.” The National Interest. Accessed November 8, 2024. https://nationalinterest.org/blog.
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