Greg Chaffin is a Principal at The Asia Group (TAG), where he focuses on the firm’s defense and national security portfolio. Drawing on fifteen years of experience in national security policymaking through government service and in private industry, Greg provides defense clients with strategic analysis and political insights across the Indo-Pacific region to advance business development opportunities, government engagement strategies, and advocacy campaigns. Greg previously served as a Senior Associate and Vice President at TAG from 2018 – 2020.
Prior to rejoining TAG, Greg served as the National Security Advisor to U.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) from 2021 to 2023. In this role, he served as the senior policy advisor to Congresswoman Slotkin on all national security and foreign policy issues. He managed the office’s national security team and led the Congresswoman’s work on the National Defense Authorization Act and related to the United States Armed Forces.
Greg spent four years at the Department of Defense in various roles in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. Most recently, Greg served as the Senior Advisor and Acting Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs. He was the principal policy advisor to the Assistant Secretary on critical political and defense issues spanning the region. He played a direct role in developing and implementing whole-of government strategies to advance U.S. interests in the Indo-Pacific, led congressional engagements, directly supported three Secretaries of Defense in bilateral and multilateral across the region.
While at the Pentagon, Greg also served as the Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia and as Country Director for Korea. In these roles, he directed initiatives to strengthen the U.S.-Korea-Japan trilateral defense partnership, including efforts to secure a Korea-Japan General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) and advance ballistic missile defense cooperation. He oversaw the development and implementation of initiatives to bolster the U.S.-Korea Alliance and managed multiple crises involving North Korea.
Greg has also worked at several Washington, D.C.-based think tanks, most recently The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) as Project Director for the Political and Security Affairs Team. He has led multiple major research initiatives, including on U.S. relations with allies and partners, China’s military modernization, and nuclear dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region.
Greg holds a Master of Arts in Security Studies from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Rochester.