Chris Kennedy

Adjunct Senior Fellow, Energy, Economics and Security Program

Press: [email protected]

Research Areas

Chris Kennedy is an adjunct senior fellow with the CNAS Energy, Economics, and Security Program and a senior economist with Bloomberg Economics’ Geoeconomics practice. At Bloomberg, he leads research and analysis on economic statecraft, commercial diplomacy, and critical minerals policy. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Kennedy served in a variety of roles at the U.S. Department of State, most recently as a member of Secretary Marco Rubio’s policy planning staff and as senior economist in the Office of the Chief Economist.

From March 2024 to March 2025, Kennedy served as director for international economics on the National Security Council in both the Biden and Trump administrations, where his portfolio included climate and trade, critical minerals, and digital trade. He also served as director for climate and environmental security from 2022 to 2023, where he coordinated a research plan for solar geoengineering and supported President Joe Biden’s participation at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh. Kennedy joined the State Department in 2019 as a science and technology policy fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, and he detailed as an economic officer at the U.S. embassy in Jakarta from 2021 to 2022.

Before entering government service, Kennedy was an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University, where he retains an affiliation. He received a PhD in economics from the University of Wyoming and a BS in chemical engineering from Clarkson University.