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
19
March 2024
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Representative Young Kim on America’s Commitment to Defend Taiwan
Featured Speakers:
Representative Young Kim
Kenneth R. Weinstein
American aircraft  participate in an “elephant walk” at Misawa Air Base, June 22, 2020. (US Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Melanie A. Bulow-Gonterman)
19
March 2024
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Representative Young Kim on America’s Commitment to Defend Taiwan

Representative Young Kim (R-CA) joins Hudson to analyze the array of threats China poses to the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific. 

American aircraft  participate in an “elephant walk” at Misawa Air Base, June 22, 2020. (US Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Melanie A. Bulow-Gonterman)
Featured Speakers:
Representative Young Kim
Kenneth R. Weinstein
07
March 2024
Past Event
Growing Expectations for the US-Japan Alliance
Featured Speakers:
Shigeru Kitamura
Brigadier General James Wellons
Sugio Takahashi
Moderator:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura, chief of staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, and Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman participate in an Honor Guard ceremony at the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo Japan, Sept. 25, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Stephanie Serrano)
07
March 2024
Past Event
Growing Expectations for the US-Japan Alliance

The Japan Chair will host a panel with senior Japanese and American security professionals to discuss Japan’s growing security challenges.

Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura, chief of staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, and Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman participate in an Honor Guard ceremony at the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo Japan, Sept. 25, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Stephanie Serrano)
Featured Speakers:
Shigeru Kitamura
Brigadier General James Wellons
Sugio Takahashi
Moderator:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
04
October 2023
Past Event
Japanese Security in an Uncertain Indo-Pacific
Featured Speakers:
Minoru Kihara
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force paratroopers assigned to the 1st Airborne Brigade move to follow-on locations after landing at JGSDF East Fuji Maneuver Area, Japan, Jan. 31, 2023, (U.S. Air Force photo by Yasuo Osakabe)
04
October 2023
Past Event
Japanese Security in an Uncertain Indo-Pacific

Hudson’s Japan Chair will host Japanese Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara to discuss Japan’s alliance with the United States.

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force paratroopers assigned to the 1st Airborne Brigade move to follow-on locations after landing at JGSDF East Fuji Maneuver Area, Japan, Jan. 31, 2023, (U.S. Air Force photo by Yasuo Osakabe)
Featured Speakers:
Minoru Kihara
Kenneth R. Weinstein
29
September 2023
Past Event
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
Past Event
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