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Shawn Brimley

Shawn Brimley

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Related Topics: Iraq
Vice President and Director of Studies

Shawn Brimley is Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) where he oversees the center’s research and serves on the executive leadership team. Mr. Brimley rejoined CNAS after serving in the Obama Administration from February 2009 to October 2012 most recently as Director for Strategic Planning on the National Security Council staff at the White House. He also served as Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon from 2009 to 2011, where he focused on the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, overseas basing and posture, and long-range strategy development. In 2012, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service and in 2010 he was awarded the Officer of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service.

Mr. Brimley was a founding member of CNAS in 2007 and was the inaugural recipient of the 1Lt. Andrew Bacevich Jr. Memorial Fellowship. He has also worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Mr. Brimley has been published in a variety of venues, including the New York Times, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. Educated at Queen’s University and George Washington University, his research interests include U.S. national security strategy and defense policy, the impact of emerging technology on U.S. strategic choices, and the evolution of America’s global diplomatic and defense posture. Mr. Brimley is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He lives in Washington with his wife Marjorie and their two children.

Areas of Expertise

  • Policy in Iraq and Afghanistan
  • Terrorism
  • U.S. defense policy and national security strategy

Related Content

  • Shawn Brimley Testifies Before the House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee o
    Shawn Brimley Testifies Before the House Armed Services Committee on the QDR
    Author(s): Shawn Brimley
    Type of Publication: Congressional Testimony
    Date: 02/26/2013

    In his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, CNAS Vice President and Director of Studies Shawn Brimley discussed the role of the QDR and key issues for the 2014 QDR in the context of a changing strategic environment.

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  • Renewing America's Strategic Solvency
    Renewing America's Strategic Solvency
    Type of Publication: Commentary
    Date: 02/12/2013

    As Shawn Brimley and Jacob Stokes write in their commentary Renewing America's Strategic Solvency, foreign policy experts are likely to feel spurned when President Obama gives his State of the Union speech on Tuesday. Some may interpret the President’s focus on jobs and the economy, with only passing discussion of international issues, as declinism or retrenchment. However, they argue, given the critical intersection of domestic strength and U.S. national security, these experts would be mistaken to do so.

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  • The Future of U.S. Defense Policy: Questions for Secretary of Defense Designate
    The Future of U.S. Defense Policy: Questions for Secretary of Defense Designate Chuck Hagel
    Type of Publication: Factsheet
    Date: 01/28/2013

    On January 31, the Senate will hold confirmation hearings for former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel to be President Obama’s third secretary of defense. Hagel’s hearing comes at a time of strategic and budgetary uncertainty for the United States and for the Pentagon in particular. In the memo The Future of U.S. Defense Policy: Questions for Secretary of Defense Designate Chuck Hagel, CNAS experts Shawn Brimley, Phillip Carter and Jacob Stokes suggest several possible areas for senators to consider.

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  • Iraq Report
    Shaping the Iraq Inheritance
    Type of Publication: Report
    Date: 06/11/2008

    American policy in Iraq will undergo two critical transitions throughout the remainder of 2008 and into early 2009: movement to a new U.S. posture in Iraq; and a wartime transition to a new administration. It is vital that both are handled in a way that best advances U.S. interests in Iraq and the region. Yet neither is being paid sufficient attention. Shaping the Iraq Inheritance outlines America’s interests in Iraq and the region, analyzes recent security and political trends, presents a framework for understanding U.S. strategic options, and makes recommendations for how the Bush administration, the military, and Congress can best prepare for the dangerous period ahead.

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  • Making America Grand Again
    Making America Grand Again: Toward a New Grand Strategy
    Type of Publication: Report
    Date: 06/11/2008

    Years of debate over the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the so-called “war on terror” have prevented Americans from grappling with the deeper challenges posed by changes in the international system.  Beyond the threats posed by terrorism, new great powers such as India and China are rising, the process of globalization is accelerating, and the challenges of climate change and energy security grow more ominous by the day. The absence of an overarching strategic framework beyond simple debates over wartime tactics has contributed to an erosion of America’s position in the world. The authors of Making America Grand Again argue that America’s leaders must broaden their strategic aperture and recognize the value in renewing their commitment to sustaining the pillars of the global system – common global goods such as stability in key regions, a vibrant global economy, and fair access to the global commons. Arguing that America’s Cold War strategy consisted of two parts – containing the Soviet Union while building and sustaining a resilient international system – the authors lay out a case for why sustaining America’s power and influence in the 21st century requires reinvesting in, and innovating within, the very global architecture that helped make America a superpower. 

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  • Finding Our Way
    Finding Our Way: Debating American Grand Strategy
    Type of Publication: Report
    Date: 06/11/2008

    In a critical election year, the debate over America’s national security strategy has been overwhelmed by a persistent focus on essentially tactical issues such as: the number of troops in Iraq; whether or not America should engage in diplomacy with Iran; and the status of the search for Osama Bin Laden. Important as such issues are, they do not address the more critical and fundamental arguments over America’s purpose and place in the world. Finding Our Way attempts to bridge the gap in the current national security debate by bringing together ideas from across the academic and policy spectrums in one accessible volume. Edited by Michèle Flournoy and Shawn Brimley, and including contributions from Robert Art, G. John Ikenberry, Barry Posen, Frederick Kagan, and Sarah Sewall, Finding Our Way provides a compelling and accessible snapshot of the current grand strategy debate. Readers will find essays advocating contrasting ideas on vital U.S. interests, key threats facing America, the utility of international partnerships and alliances, the use of military force, the implications of Iraq on American strategy, and the need to restore a positive view of American power. This volume is an ideal primer for scholars and students interested in the contemporary debate over American power and purpose in a changing world.

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  • Strategic Questions for Generals Petraeus and Odierno
    Type of Publication: Policy Brief
    Date: 05/06/2008

    As Generals Petraeus and Odierno appear before Congress this week, CNAS has drafted several key questions we feel are among the most vital to ask. As the 2008 presidential election looms, the American people deserve hard answers to hard questions concerning Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and military readiness. CNAS experts are always willing to provide insight and comment on these and other issues.

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  • The Case for Conditional Engagement in Iraq
    Type of Publication: Policy Brief
    Date: 03/06/2008

    Five years into the war in Iraq with no end in sight, a new strategy is needed. The current strategy of unconditional support to Iraq’s central government has not produced nearly enough political progress. President Bush and those wishing to succeed him should embrace a new political strategy in Iraq that makes our military presence conditional on political accommodation...

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  • Phased Transition: A Responsible Way Forward and Out of Iraq
    Type of Publication: Report
    Date: 06/27/2007

    The U.S. military will withdraw from Iraq; the question is when and under what conditions. This report will provide a realistic appraisal of America’s enduring interests in Iraq — no al Qaeda safe havens, no regional war, and no genocide — and to provide a Phased Transition plan that identifies specific steps the Bush administration can take to make these outcomes more likely while also preparing for the worst and begins planning for subsequent phases. At this dangerous moment, such realism is essential to increasing the prospects that the United States will get out of Iraq more responsibly than it got in.

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  • Enduring U.S. Interests in Iraq: The Three No’s
    Type of Publication: Policy Brief
    Date: 03/20/2007

    Even as forces in Iraq are drawn down, the U.S. has enduring interests in that besieged country and the surrounding region, and these interests will require a significant military presence therefore the foreseeable future.These vital longterm U.S. interests in Iraq can be boiled down to Three No’s: no regional war; no al Qaeda safe havens; and no genocide.

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  • Iraq Inheritance
    Iraq

    After nearly a decade at war, American troops have departed Iraq. But Iraq still matters to vital U.S. national interests. The security environment is much improved, but Iraq continues to be beset by terrorist violence, sectarian tension and political infighting. CNAS research focuses on policy options for promoting enduring stability in Iraq and a long-term U.S.-Iraq strategic partnership.

     

     

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  • General David Petraeus
    Striking a Balance: A New American Security
    June 11, 2009 - 7:45am - 7:00pm
    Willard InterContinental Hotel
    Washington, District of Columbia

    Striking a Balance: A New American Security was an all-day CNAS conference highlighting the major foreign policy and national security challenges facing our nation in the critical time ahead.

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