Who We Are

Elbridge Colby is co-founder and principal of The Marathon Initiative and formerly served as the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development.

Dr. A. Wess Mitchell is co-founder and principal at The Marathon Initiative and formerly served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.

Matt Pottinger is a Senior Advisor at The Marathon Initiative and formerly served as the U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor.

Dr. Jakub J. Grygiel is a Senior Advisor at The Marathon Initiative and formerly served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State.

Dr. Edward N. Luttwak is a Distinguished Adjunct Fellow at The Marathon Initiative and formerly served as a consultant to the U.S. government.

Alexander Gray is a Senior Advisor at the Marathon Initiative. Gray previously served at the White House for four years, most recently as Deputy Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff of the National Security Council.

Dennis C. Blair is a member of the Advisory Board at The Marathon Initiative. Blair previously served as Director of National Intelligence and Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, retiring from the U.S. Navy after a 34-year career with the rank of Admiral.

Thomas de Maizière has held various roles in German government, including head of the Federal Chancellery, Federal Minister of Homeland Security, and Minister of Defense, where he was a close confidant of Chancellor Angela Merkel. From 2009-2021 he was an MP in the German Bundestag. As co-chair of the NATO Reflection Group, he coordinated the preparation of the report “NATO2030: United for a new Era,” which offered extensive proposals for the successful strategic and political realignment of NATO.

Ambassador David Hale is a member of the Advisory Board at The Marathon Initiative and a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center. He was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from August 2018-May 2021, and was in the U.S. Foreign Service for 38 years, holding the lifetime rank of a Career Ambassador. His book, “American Diplomacy toward Lebanon: Lessons in Middle East Foreign Policy” will be published by Bloomsbury/I.B. Tauris in February 2024 as part of a Middle East Institute policy series.

Dhruva Jaishankar is Executive Director of the Observer Research Foundation America (ORF America) in Washington DC.  He is also a Non-Resident Fellow with the Lowy Institute in Australia and a monthly columnist for the Hindustan Times in India. His research and analysis centers on India’s relations with the United States, Japan, Australia, Southeast Asia, and Europe; defense and security policy; and globalization, democracy, and technology.

Robert Kaplan is a member of the Advisory Board at The Marathon Initiative. He is also the Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the bestselling author of nineteen books on foreign affairs, most recently The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government’s Greatest Humanitarian (Random House, 2021).

Mary Kissel is a member of the Advisory Board at The Marathon Initiative and EVP and Senior Policy Advisor at Stephens, Inc. Previously, Kissel served as Senior Advisor to Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and was a Member of Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal.

Charles A. Kupchan is Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.  He served on the National Security Council under Presidents Obama and Clinton.  His most recent book is Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Dr. Edward N. Luttwak is a member of the Advisory Board and Distinguished Adjunct Fellow at The Marathon Initiative. Luttwak is the author of numerous books, most recently The Rise of China vs. The Logic of Strategy (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012).

Kent Lucken is a member of the Advisory Board at The Marathon Initiative and Managing Director of Citi Private Bank in Boston. Previously, Lucken was a 14-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service and Foreign Policy Advisor for Mitt Romney’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

C. Raja Mohan is a member of the Advisory Board at The Marathon Initiative. He is also a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, New Delhi and a visiting research professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Raja Mohan is an international affairs columnist for Foreign Policy and the Indian Express. 

Nadia Schadlow is a member of the Advisory Board at The Marathon Initiative and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute. Previously, Schadlow was Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy.

Walter B. Slocombe is a member of the Advisory Board at The Marathon Initiative and a Senior Counsel at the Washington, D.C., law firm Caplin & Drysdale. Previously, Slocombe served as U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

Odd Arne Westad teaches history and global affairs at Yale, where he also directs International Security Studies. Among his books are The Global Cold War and Decisive Encounters, a history of the Chinese civil war.  He also co-edited a three-volume Cambridge History of the Cold War.  His most recent books are Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750; The Cold War: A World History; Empire and Righteous Nation: 600 Years of China-Korea Relations; and The Great Transformation: China’s Road from Revolution to Reform (with Chen Jian).