Matt Pottinger
Matt Pottinger is a Senior Advisor at the Marathon Initiative and Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Pottinger previously served at the White House for four years in senior roles on the National Security Council staff, including as Deputy National Security Advisor from 2019 to 2021. In that role, he coordinated the full spectrum of national security policy. Before that he served as Senior Director for Asia, where he led the administration’s work on Asia, and in particular its shift on China policy.
“Matt Pottinger conceptualized and drove the most important shift in U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War,” said former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster about Matt’s role in helping reorient the United States toward great-power competition with China.
Before his White House service, Matt spent the late 1990s and early 2000s in China as a reporter for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. He then fought in Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine during three combat deployments between 2007 and 2010. Following active duty, Matt founded and led an Asia-focused risk consultancy and ran Asia research at a multi-strategy investment fund in New York.
Work
CSDS Brussels: Roundtable
How Biden Let Europe Slip Away
Interview: Asahi Shimbun
U.S. Strategy Should Be Europe First, Then Asia
The Geopolitical Opportunity of Ukraine’s Kursk Offensive
China’s “New” Diplomacy: Opportunities for American Statecraft
5 Rules for Superpowers Facing Multiple Conflicts
America Is a Heartbeat Away From a War It Could Lose
27th Annual Economist Government Roundtable – Keynote Remarks
Ukraine, Taiwan, and the Dawn of Great Power Competition
NATO’s Next Decade: Nine thinkers assess the alliance’s future ahead of a historic summit.
Western Europe Is Still Falling Short in NATO’s East
Wess Mitchell Quoted in Bloomberg
Getting Strategic Deprioritization Right
A Drawn-Out Ukraine War Should Not Change U.S. Strategy
Why Biden’s China Reset Is a Bad Idea
‘The Twilight Struggle’ Review: Welcome to the New Cold War
Wess Mitchell Interviewed on WBUR
The Case for Ukrainian Neutrality
To Prevent China from Grabbing Taiwan, Stop Russia in Ukraine
Putin United the West—but Now Comes the Hard Part
The U.S. Isn’t Going to Fight in Ukraine, But There’s Much More It Can Do to Help
Wess Mitchell Interviewed in Limes (Italy)
Wess Mitchell Interviewed in Echo24
Wess Mitchell Interviewed on Sveriges Radio
For America, Putin’s Invasion Is a Strategic Opportunity
Wess Mitchell Interviewed on Sky News
Wess Mitchell Interviewed on Global Demons (FPRI)
Wess Mitchell Interviewed by The Reagan Institute
A Habsburg to Be Reckoned With: Two Books on Maria Theresa
Biden’s Climate Diplomacy Is a Gift to China
Mastering the Multi-Front Challenge: The Diplomatic Strategies of Metternich and Bismarck
Wess Mitchell Quoted in The Economist
Wess Mitchell Quoted in Bloomberg
A Strategy for Avoiding Two-Front War
Biden Is Falling Into the Same Trap With Europe as Obama
Wess Mitchell testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on NATO 2030
The Curzonian imprint on Indian foreign policy
With Donald Trump gone, NATO is plotting its future
Trump, Biden und Europa: Geopolitik, Lastenverteilung und Stil
Wess Mitchell Featured in Reservistenverband
Panel: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung – Wess Mitchell
Wess Mitchell Quoted in Bloomberg
Wess Mitchell Interviewed in Small Wars Journal
Biden Team’s Embrace of Europe Falls Short on Content
NATO: India’s Next Geopolitical Destination
NATO Needs to Deal With China Head-On
Key Republican Lessons for Biden’s Global Agenda
NATO Must Adapt for a Dangerous New Era
Panel: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik e.V. – Wess Mitchell
Panel: Wilson Center – Wess Mitchell
Wess Mitchell Quoted in The Wall Street Journal
Panel: Center for a New American Security – Wess Mitchell
Panel: Center for European Policy Analysis – Wess Mitchell
Under what conditions will we open to Russia
Wess Mitchell Quoted in Washington Post
Wess Mitchell Interviewed in la Repubblica
Wess Mitchell Quoted in The Wall Street Journal
Wess Mitchell Quoted in The New York Times
NATO 2030: United for a New Era
Should U.S. Foreign Policy Focus on Great-Power Competition?
Strategic Sequencing: How Great Powers Avoid Multi-Front War
Wess Mitchell, Elbridge Colby Quoted in The Atlantic
Wess Mitchell Featured in The Wall Street Journal (Book Review)
Containing China Will Be Complicated
Central Europe’s China Reckoning
Emperor Joseph’s Solution to Coronavirus
Covid-19 is a chance for the U.S. and Europe to unite on China
Conservatives and Geopolitical Change
The Age of Great-Power Competition
The Middle East in an Era of Great Power Competition, Hoover Institute
The Grand Strategy of the Habsburg Empire
Rethinking Metternich, Standpoint Magazine
The Unquiet Frontier: Rising Rivals, Vulnerable Allies, and the Crisis of American Power
Additional Articles
- Predators on the Frontier, The American Interest, February 12, 2016 https://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/02/12/predators-on-the-frontier/
- The Case for Deterrence by Denial, The American Interest, August 12, 2015 https://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/08/12/the-case-for-deterrence-by-denial/
- Why Ukraine Can’t Be a Buffer State, Europe’s Edge, February 20, 2015
- A Preclusive Strategy to Defend the NATO Frontier, The American Interest, December 2, 2014 https://www.the-american-interest.com/2014/12/02/a-preclusive-strategy-to-defend-the-nato-frontier/
- Salami Slicing and Deterrence, The American Interest, November 18, 2014 https://www.the-american-interest.com/
- Limited War is Back, The National Interest, August 2014 https://nationalinterest.org/feature/limited-war-back-11128?page=0%2C1
- An American Strategy for Crimea, Polish Institute of International Affairs, March 3, 2014 https://cepa.ecms.pl/index/?id=276d18b2db1978d562fa17920c57977f
- The Future of U.S. Policy in Central Europe, Aspen Review Central Europe, December 2013 https://www.aspen.review/
- Atlanticism in Retreat, The American Interest, November 2013 https://www.the-american-interest.com/2013/10/10/atlanticism-in-retreat/
- America Needs its Frontline Allies Now More Than Ever, Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2013 https://www.wsj.com/
- The Vulnerability of Peripheries, The American Interest, February 2011 the-american-interest.com/2011/03/01/the-vulnerability-of-peripheries/
- Central Europe Outlook 2011: New Confidence, Looming Choices, Central Europe Digest, February 1, 2011
- Growing U.S.-Central European Ties, International Herald Tribune, April 6, 2010 https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/opinion/07iht-edbrzezinski.html
- American ‘Decline’ Tested on Periphery First, Realclearworld, March 22, 2010 (co-author) https://www.realclearworld.com/
- The Perils of Losing Mitteleuropa, Realclearworld, September 22, 2009m https://www.realclearworld.com/
- How Central Europe Is Reshaping Global Politics, Der Spiegel, February 26, 2009. https://www.spiegel.de/
- U.S. Europe Policy, Version 3.0, Limes (Italian Journal of Geopolitics), Winter 2008 https://www.limesonline.com/en/europe-policy-30-new-ideas-for-an-old-continent
- Perhapsburg: What the EU Is and Isn’t, The American Interest, November/December 2008 https://www.the-american-interest.com/2008/11/01/perhapsburg/
- Obamas Hausaufgaben, Internationale Politik, December 15, 2008 https://internationalepolitik.de/de/obamas-hausaufgaben
- Gut gebrüllt, Maus! Wie Kleine Mächte ihr Gewicht in die Waagschale Werfen Können, Internationale Politik, July/August 2008 https://internationalepolitik.de/de/gut-gebruellt-maus
- Empire by Devolution: What the EU Can Learn from the Empire of Franz Joseph I, Orbis, Summer 2008 https://www.fpri.org/article/2008/07/empire-devolution-todays-eu-can-learn-franz-josef-empire/
Books
- The Godfather Doctrine: A Foreign Policy Parable, Princeton University Press, 2009 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv7h0tms
Book Chapters and Reports
- Rebuilding America’s Alliances: Europe in Choosing to Lead: American Foreign Policy for a Disordered World, John Hay Initiative, 2015 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28186998-choosing-to-lead
- Frontline Allies: War and Change in Central Europe, CEPA Strategic Assessment. Group, November 2015 (co-editor) https://cepa.ecms.pl/
- A Deterrence-by-Denial Strategy for the Baltic in Frontline Allies: War and Change in Central Europe, CEPA Edited Volume, November 2015 https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep06281.14?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
- Central European Security After Crimea: The Case for Strengthening NATO’s Eastern Defenses, CEPA Report No. 35, March 25, 2014 http://cepa.ecms.pl
- The Ties that Bind: U.S.-Central European Relations 25 Years After the Transition,
- CEPA Edited Volume, November 2013 (co-editor) https://cepa.ecms.pl/
- The Anchorless Pivot: Where Central Europe Should Fit in America’s ‘Pacific Century” in Navigating Uncertainty: U.S.-Central European Relations 2012, CEPA Edited Volume, July 2012
- Translating Opportunity into Impact, Central Europe in the EU,2010-2020, The Polish Quarterly of International Affairs, December 2011 https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=162648
- Building the New Normal: U.S.-Central European Relations 2010-2020, CEPA Edited Volume, April 2011 (co-editor)
- Hingepoint Allies: Bolstering U.S. Alliances with Exposed States in Central Europe, East Asia and the Middle East, CEPA Report No. 32, October 2010
- Keeping New Allies: An Assessment of U.S. Policy in Central Europe, Report of CEPA Working Group, July 2010 (co-author)
- S.-Central Europe Relations in the Age of Obama, CEPA Edited Volume, July 2009 (co-author) https://cepa.ecms.pl/
- Tipping the Scales: Why Central Europe Matters to the United States, Center for European Policy Analysis, May 2006 http://www.ncpathinktank.org/pdfs/CEPATippingtheScales.pdf