Dr. Kurt M. Campbell is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Asia Group. Prior to re-joining TAG, Kurt most recently served as the 22nd Deputy Secretary of The United States Department of State, where he played a key role in strengthening America’s diplomatic standing and in modernizing the Department to meet enduring global challenges. Before assuming his role at the State Department, Kurt served as the inaugural Indo-Pacific Coordinator at the National Security Council and Deputy Assistant to the President at the White House from 2021 to 2024.
Kurt operates at the intersection of geopolitics and commerce and has devoted his career to advancing America’s interests in the Indo-Pacific. Kurt is a serial entrepreneur, having started numerous businesses, launched and led the leading national security think tank in Washington, DC, and spearheaded globally significant international initiatives. Kurt advises C-suite executives on how to navigate opportunities related to geopolitical developments and economic trends across Asia and the world. His career spans nearly four decades across the private sector, academia, military service, journalism, and government.
In the role as President Biden’s principal Indo-Pacific policy advisor, he advanced consequential foreign policy strategies across the Indo-Pacific region – from strengthening alliances and traditional partnerships throughout the region, developing economic statecraft strategies to help align US business opportunities with US foreign policy interests, managing the US-China relationship and building an enduring strategic foundation for the US-India relationship. Kurt was also a driving force behind the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (AUKUS), which strengthened defense cooperation, secured supply chains, and advanced cutting-edge technology partnerships and the key advancements in US, Japan and Korea trilateral relations.
Prior to his most recent public service, Kurt was Chairman and Co-founder of The Asia Group. From 2009 to 2013, Kurt served as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he is widely credited as the key architect of the “Pivot to Asia.” Kurt began his career as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserves, serving on surface ships, at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and in the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Advisory Unit. He was also an Associate Professor of Public Policy and International Relations at Harvard’s John F Kennedy School of Government.
Kurt has been recognized for his service with the award of the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award – the nation’s highest diplomatic honor. Campbell was recognized by Queen Elizabeth in her list of honors in 2014 as an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia and as an Honorary Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his support of American relations with Australia and New Zealand respectively. He has also received top national honors from a number of key Asian and European allies.
Kurt holds a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego, a Certificate in Music and Political Philosophy from the University of Erevan in Soviet Armenia, and a Doctorate in International Relations from Brasenose College at Oxford University, where he was a Distinguished Marshall Scholar. Kurt is the author or editor of ten books, including most recently The Pivot: The Future of American Statecraft in Asia. He is married to Dr. Lael Brainard, and together they have three daughters. They live in Washington, DC, and maintain Iron Bell Farm, a historic Civil War-era property in Rappahannock County, Virginia.