Cliff Kupchan

Senior Fellow for Geopolitics

Cliff Kupchan is a leading authority on international relations, with more than three decades of experience spanning the private sector and U.S. government service. In addition to his role as a senior fellow at CFTNI, Cliff is chairman emeritus and senior advisor at Eurasia Group, where he has led cutting-edge political risk analysis. Before moving to the private sector, he served as vice president at The Nixon Center, the predecessor to CFTNI. Cliff also held a senior position at the U.S. State Department during the Clinton administration and spent two years in Russia as director of Eurasia Foundation’s Moscow office. Before that, he served as a top foreign policy advisor to the House International Relations Committee of the U.S. Congress. He has also served as staff director of the Subcommittee on Africa.

Cliff’s current analysis focuses on global macro trends, the wars in Iran and Ukraine, and U.S.-China relations. He regularly appears on major broadcast networks and is widely quoted in the world’s leading publications. He has published extensively in academic journals and frequently authors op-eds. Cliff received a master’s degree from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University.

Recent Publications:

• After the Iran war, the global economy will never be the same, The Washington Post, 19 March 2026.
• A New World Order of Tariffs, The National Interest, 6 August 2025.
• Joe Biden Should Press Hold on Saudi-Israeli Normalization, The National Interest, 10 June 2024.
• 6 Swing States Will Decide Future of Geopolitics, Foreign Policy, 6 June 2023.
• Beware the Taiwan Election, The China Project, 3 August 2023.
• Building BRICS — a Limited Win for China and Warning for the U.S., The Wire China, 17 September 2023.
• The View from Riyadh, The National Interest, 1 December 2023.
• The Impact of the Ukraine War Will Last for Generations, The National Interest, 29 October 2022.
• Bipolarity is Back, The Washington Quarterly, February 2022, pp. 123-139.
• Coronavirus and the Sweden Myth, with Ian Bremmer and Scott Rosenstein, The New York Times, 4 May 2020.