Brandon J. Archuleta

Adjunct Senior Fellow, National Security Human Capital

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Brandon J. Archuleta, Ph.D. is a political scientist and Adjunct Senior Fellow in the National Security Human Capital Program at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, DC. A veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his research explores U.S. national security policy, defense strategy, and the All-Volunteer Force.

A public policy scholar by training, Dr. Archuleta has written extensively on U.S. defense policy, plans, and strategy. His research and commentary have been published in Armed Forces and Society, Joint Forces Quarterly, The Policy Studies Journal, War on the Rocks, Defense One, and the San Diego Union Tribune. His book, Twenty Years of Service: The Politics of Military Pension Policy and the Long Road to Reform, was published by the University Press of Kansas in 2020 and provides the most comprehensive examination of U.S. military pension policy in a generation. He most recently contributed a book chapter titled, “Money Matters: Modernizing the Military Compensation System,” in Bend But Do Not Break: Shaping the Future of the All-Volunteer Force, published by Oxford University Press in 2026.

Dr. Archuleta was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow from 2020 to 2021. In that capacity, he served as Strategic Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Dr. Archuleta was an Assistant Professor of American Politics in the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 2014 to 2017, as well as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University from 2021 to 2022. He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Clements Center National Security Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, and President of the West Point Class of 2006.

Dr. Archuleta holds a Bachelor of Science in American Politics from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, as well as a Master of Public Affairs in International Affairs and Ph.D. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. He is married with twin sons.