Kenneth R. Weinstein

Japan Chair

kenneth-weinstein

At A Glance:

Kenneth R. Weinstein is the Walter P. Stern distinguished fellow at Hudson Institute.

Biography

Kenneth R. Weinstein is the Japan Chair at Hudson Institute.

Dr. Weinstein was Hudson's inaugural Walter P. Stern Distinguished Fellow from 2020 until 2023. From 2011 through 2020, Weinstein served as president and CEO of Hudson. In December 2019, he became the inaugural holder of the Walter P. Stern Chair. He joined the Institute in 1991, was appointed CEO in June 2005, and was named president and CEO in March 2011.

Under his leadership since 2005, Hudson grew significantly in size, prominence, visibility, and impact, recruiting top-flight talent and advising officials around the globe. The Institute’s annual budget nearly tripled to $20 million in this time period, and its endowment grew fivefold to $60 million

A political theorist by training whose academic work focused on the early Enlightenment, Dr. Weinstein has written widely for publications in the United States, Europe, and Asia, including the Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, and the Yomiuri Shimbun. In 2006, he was decorated with a knighthood in arts and letters by the government of France and serves on the boards of nonprofit organizations in the US and Europe.

From 2017 until 2020, Dr. Weinstein chaired the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the oversight body for US Agency for Global Media, and was chair of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting and the Open Technology Fund. He previously was a member of the National Humanities Council, the governing body of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

He is often interviewed by major broadcast and cable outlets around the world and speaks French and German. A frequent guest on French television and radio, he has served as in-studio commentator for live French-language coverage of US congressional and presidential elections for nearly twenty-five years.

He is the co-editor of The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking (Lexington Books, 2009).

Dr. Weinstein serves on the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations, which provides counsel on trade agreements to the United States Trade Representative. In March 2020, he was nominated by President Trump to serve as US ambassador to Japan. His nomination was reported unanimously out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September 2020.

Dr. Weinstein earned his BA in general studies in the Humanities from the University of Chicago, DEA in Soviet and Eastern European studies from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, and PhD in government from Harvard University.

Events
29
September 2023
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
India’s Role in a New Pacific Order
Featured Speakers:
Walter Russell Mead
Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
Stephen E. Biegun
Nadia Schadlow
Jayant Sinha, MP
Vice Admiral (Ret.) Shekhar Sinha
Moderator:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
US President Joe Biden and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi listen to the national anthems during a welcoming ceremony for Modi on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 22, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
29
September 2023
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
India’s Role in a New Pacific Order

Join Hudson Institute and the India Foundation for an invitation-only event focused on the role Washington and the American business community can play in strengthening bilateral economic and strategic relationships between the US and India.

US President Joe Biden and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi listen to the national anthems during a welcoming ceremony for Modi on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 22, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Walter Russell Mead
Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
Stephen E. Biegun
Nadia Schadlow
Jayant Sinha, MP
Vice Admiral (Ret.) Shekhar Sinha
Moderator:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
22
September 2023
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
The Evolving Relationship between Europe and the Indo-Pacific
Featured Speakers:
Eva Maydell
Kenneth R. Weinstein
A model of the proposed jet fighter aircraft Tempest, a joint program by a consortium known as "Team Tempest," which includes Britain and Japan, is pictured in the BAE hall during the in Farnborough, United Kingdom, on July 18, 2022. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)
22
September 2023
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
The Evolving Relationship between Europe and the Indo-Pacific

Hudson hosts Eva Maydell, a member of the European Parliament and vice chair of the Delegation on Japan Relations, to speak on recent developments between Europe and the Indo-Pacific.

A model of the proposed jet fighter aircraft Tempest, a joint program by a consortium known as "Team Tempest," which includes Britain and Japan, is pictured in the BAE hall during the in Farnborough, United Kingdom, on July 18, 2022. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Eva Maydell
Kenneth R. Weinstein
12
September 2023
Past Event
Quantum Computing and Avenues for US-Japanese Cooperation with President Kohei Itoh of Keio University
Featured Speakers:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Professor Kohei Itoh
The Dilution refrigerator inside Amazon's quantum networking lab in Brighton, Massachusetts, on June 28, 2023. (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
12
September 2023
Past Event
Quantum Computing and Avenues for US-Japanese Cooperation with President Kohei Itoh of Keio University
The Dilution refrigerator inside Amazon's quantum networking lab in Brighton, Massachusetts, on June 28, 2023. (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Professor Kohei Itoh
02
May 2023
Past Event
The G7 Summit and a New Era of Japanese Leadership
Featured Speakers:
Honorable Akira Amari
Dr. Satohiro Akimoto
Kenneth R. Weinstein
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02
May 2023
Past Event
The G7 Summit and a New Era of Japanese Leadership

Please join the Honorable Akira Amarifor his views on the G7 summit and Japanese leadership.  

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Featured Speakers:
Honorable Akira Amari
Dr. Satohiro Akimoto
Kenneth R. Weinstein