Skip to main content
Article

Wilson Center VP Named Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Ryan McKenna

Phone: (202) 691-4217

ryan.mckenna@wilsoncenter.org

WASHINGTON – Wilson Center Vice President of Programs and Director of Studies Abraham M. Denmark has been named Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense for AUKUS. In this position, he will lead efforts across the Department of Defense to advance the trilateral AUKUS agreement announced in September 2021 by President Biden, Prime Minister Morrison, and Prime Minister Johnson.

“The Biden administration is working closely with some of our most important allies to forge new alliances for the Indo Pacific region that will extend American leadership and, hopefully, enhance security, rule of law, and human dignity,” said Mark Green, President and CEO of the Wilson Center. “I am proud that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin chose Abraham Denmark to join his team of experts. As a trusted leader of the Wilson Center, Abe has demonstrated keen insights that will help meet these national imperatives.”

Denmark joined the Wilson Center in 2017 as director of the Asia program and a senior fellow in the Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, and was promoted to his current role in October 2021. Prior to joining the Wilson Center, he served in the Pentagon as deputy assistant secretary of defense and has held analytic positions at the National Bureau of Asian Research, the Center for a New American Security, and the US Intelligence Community. He has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, and is the author of U.S. Strategy in the Asian Century: Empowering Allies & Partners (Columbia University Press, 2021).         

Notes to Editors

  1. The Wilson Center provides a strictly nonpartisan space for the worlds of policymaking and scholarship to interact. By conducting relevant and timely research and promoting dialogue from all perspectives, it works to address the critical current and emerging challenges confronting the United States and the world.