Director of the National Security Studies Program, New America Foundation

Program:
Aspen Homeland Security Group

Biography

Peter Bergen is the Director of the National Security Studies Program at the New America Foundation. Mr. Bergen is also print and television journalist, and the author of Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden ( 2001), which has been translated into 18 languages and The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of Al Qaeda's Leader (2006). Both books were named among the best non-fiction books of the year by The Washington Post, and documentaries based on the books were nominated for Emmys in 2002 and 2007. His most recent book is The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda (2011). New York Times  book reviewer Michiko Kakutani writes, "For readers interested in a highly informed, wide-angled, single-volume briefing on the war on terror so far, 'The Longest War' is clearly that essential book." Tom Ricks, also writing in the Times, described the book as "stunning." Holy War, Inc. and The Longest War were both New York Times bestsellers.

Mr. Bergen is CNN's national security analyst and a fellow at New York University's Center on Law & Security. He has written for many publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Rolling Stone, The National Interest, TIME, Newsweek, Washington Monthly, The Nation, Mother Jones, Washington Times, The Times (UK), The Daily Telegraph (UK), and The Guardian (UK). He is a contributing editor at The New Republic and has worked as a correspondent for National Geographic television, Discovery and CNN. In 2008 he was an adjunct lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and he worked as an adjunct professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University for several years. He has testified on Capitol Hill on a number of occasions.

As director of New America's National Security Studies Program, Mr. Bergen leads the Foundation's analysis of terrorism, counterinsurgency, South Asia’s geopolitics and other national security concerns. Mr. Bergen holds a M.A in modern history from New College, Oxford University. He is a member of the Aspen Homeland Security Group.