Board Member

Meghan L. O'Sullivan

Meghan L. O'Sullivan

Director and Professor, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Meghan L. O’Sullivan is the Jeane Kirkpatrick professor of the practice of international affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School and the director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Dr. O’Sullivan’s policy-oriented scholarship is at the nexus of traditional disciplines, with particular expertise on how the energy transition and geopolitics intersect. Her research and writing has shaped how policymakers and business people consider these trends. She has also served in multiple senior policymaking roles and has advised national security officials in both Republican and Democratic administrations. Dr. O’Sullivan is a member of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Foreign Policy Advisory Board. Between 2004 and 2007, she was special assistant to President George W. Bush and was deputy national security advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan during the last two years of her tenure. O’Sullivan has been on public company and nonprofit boards. She is a senior director at the strategic consulting firm Macro Advisory Partners and is the chair of the North American Group of the Trilateral Commission.

Top Stories on CFR

Russia

Liana Fix, a fellow for Europe at CFR, and Thomas Graham, a distinguished fellow at CFR, sit down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the future of U.S. policy toward Russia and the risks posed by heightened tensions between two nuclear powers. This episode is the first in a special TPI series on the U.S. 2024 presidential election and is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Terrorism and Counterterrorism

Violence around U.S. elections in 2024 could not only destabilize American democracy but also embolden autocrats across the world. Jacob Ware recommends that political leaders take steps to shore up civic trust and remove the opportunity for violence ahead of the 2024 election season.

China

Those seeking to profit from fentanyl and governments seeking to control its supply are locked in a never-ending competition, with each new countermeasure spurring further innovation to circumvent it.