Patrick M. Cronin

Patrick M. Cronin is the Asia-Pacific security chair at Hudson Institute. Dr. Cronin’s research analyzes salient strategic issues related to US national security goals in the Indo-Pacific region and globally. His current writing touches on protecting national interests and world order despite intensified great-power competition, the enduring North Korea problem, and other state and non-state challenges.

Previously, he was the senior director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS); senior director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at the National Defense University, where he simultaneously oversaw the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs; director of studies at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS); senior vice president and director of research at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); and director of research at the US Institute of Peace. During the George W. Bush administration, he was confirmed by the US Senate as the third-highest ranking official at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). He served as an intelligence officer in the US Navy Reserve. He has been an adjunct faculty professor at the University of Virginia, the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and Georgetown University.

Dr. Cronin has a rich and diverse background in Asia-Pacific security and US defense, and foreign and development policy. Before leading INSS, Dr. Cronin served as the director of studies at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). At IISS, he also served as editor of the Adelphi Papers and as the executive director of the Armed Conflict Database. Before joining IISS, Dr. Cronin was senior vice president and director of research at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

In 2001, Dr. Cronin was confirmed by the United States Senate to the third-ranking position at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). While serving as assistant administrator for policy and program coordination, Dr. Cronin also led the interagency task force that helped design the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

From 1998 until 2001, Dr. Cronin served as director of research at the US Institute of Peace. Prior to that, he spent seven years at the National Defense University, first arriving at INSS in 1990 as a senior research professor covering Asia and long-range security issues. He was the founding executive editor of Joint Force Quarterly, and subsequently became deputy director and director of research at the Institute. He received the Army’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award upon departure from NDU in 1997.

He has also been a senior analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses, a US Naval Reserve intelligence officer, and an analyst with the Congressional Research Service and SRI International. He was associate editor of Strategic Review and worked as an undergraduate at the Miami Herald and the Fort Lauderdale News.

Dr. Cronin has taught at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program, Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and the University of Virginia’s Woodrow Wilson Department of Government.

He read international relations at St. Antony’s College, the University of Oxford, where he received both his MPhil and DPhil degrees, and graduated with high honors from the University of Florida. He is a frequent contributor to The Straits Times (Singapore) and DongA Ilbo (South Korea), and is a regular member of the Defense & Aerospace Report’s “Washington Roundtable” podcast. He also writes for other leading publications and regularly conducts television and radio interviews.