Fontaine chosen as new CNAS president
Richard Fontaine has been chosen as the new president of the Center for a New American Security, the think tank announced today. “I’m honored that the board of directors has selected me as the next president of CNAS,” Fontaine told The Cable. “I am excited by the opportunity to help lead this organization at a ...
Richard Fontaine has been chosen as the new president of the Center for a New American Security, the think tank announced today.
Richard Fontaine has been chosen as the new president of the Center for a New American Security, the think tank announced today.
“I’m honored that the board of directors has selected me as the next president of CNAS,” Fontaine told The Cable. “I am excited by the opportunity to help lead this organization at a time when its mission – to develop strong, pragmatic and principled national security and defense policies – has scarcely been more important.”
Fontaine replaces John Nagl, who announced in January that his will leave the CNAS presidency to become the first Minerva Research Fellow at the U.S. Naval Academy. CNAS was founded in 2007 by Kurt Campbell, now assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Michèle Flournoy, the recently departed under secretary of defense for policy. Nate Fick is the CEO and former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig is chairman of the board.
Before joining CNAS, Fontaine was national security advisor to Sen. John McCain and before that he served as associate director for Near Eastern affairs on the National Security Council and in the office of former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
“I first came to know Richard when we had opposing roles as national security advisors — him for Senator McCain and me for then-Senator Obama. I greatly respected him then and greatly admire him now. CNAS will be much enhanced by his service as its president,” Danzig said in a press release.
“Richard was a great asset to our team at State and will be a superb leader at CNAS,” said Armitage. “You will be hearing plenty from him in the future.”
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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