Ian Bryan
Adjunct Senior Fellow, Defense Program
Ian Bryan is an attorney and former legislative director for Senators Dianne Feinstein and Laphonza Butler. He also served as Senator Feinstein’s foreign, defense, and veterans policy advisor while she sat on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and the Intelligence Committee.
A retired Air Force colonel, Ian has nine years of Washington headquarters experience in procurement, international relations, and legislative affairs. He managed congressional engagement for the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, handling appropriations and authorizations in the House and Senate.
As a professor of strategic studies at the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS), Ian directed the core defense policy course and taught military theory and strategy. He deployed to Baghdad as a strategic planner on the Joint Interagency Task Force, and he has piloted B-1 bomber, KC-135 tanker, and C-17 transport aircraft.
Ian’s research interests include strategy, air and space power, nuclear weapons, the National Guard, Congress, civil-military relations, and military professionalism. He holds a JD from the University of Virginia, MA degrees in military history and political science from The Ohio State University, and a BS from the U.S. Air Force Academy.