Prof. James Henry Bergeron
Distinguished FellowProf. James Henry Bergeron currently serves as Political Advisor at Allied Maritime Command. He has served as a foreign policy advisor to ten senior American and NATO Commanders in the fields of maritime and joint expeditionary operations, including as the advisor to Naval Striking and Support Forces in NATO. He is regularly consulted on NATO maritime strategy, NATO-EU relations, and was one of the drafters of the Alliance Maritime Strategy.
Chris Brannigan
Distinguished FellowChris Brannigan is a strategy consultant with significant experience in leading, supporting and directing diverse organisations in difficult situations. He was a member of the No. 10 Policy Unit for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with responsibility for Defence and established the Integrated Review Task Force, focusing on British foreign policy out to 2030. He previously served in 10 Downing Street as Director of Government Relations for Prime Minister Theresa May. He was educated at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, holds an MA from Kings College London, and completed the Joint Services Advanced Command and Staff Course at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom.
Neil Brown
Distinguished FellowNeil Brown is Geopolitical Strategist at Deltroit Asset Management, following several years in a similar role at CQS. Previously, Neil served as an officer in the Royal Navy, including: operational deployments in three air defence destroyers and logistics command of a Carrier Task Group; legal roles as a Court Room Advocate and Judge, and as senior military lawyer for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and global military operations in 2004. He later led the Royal Navy’s Legal Services and the Naval Staff. His last role was in the Cabinet Office, developing a British national strategy for engagement with Gulf Cooperation Council States. Neil graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in Law, was commissioned into the Royal Navy at the Britannia Royal Naval College, called to the Bar at the Middle Temple, and was a Visiting Fellow at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford.
Charles Parton OBE
Distinguished FellowCharles Parton was a long-serving career diplomat in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, spending 22 out of his 37 year career working in or on the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In his final posting, he was seconded to the European Union’s Delegation in Beijing as First Counsellor until late 2016. In 2017, he was chosen by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee in the House of Commons to act as Special Advisor on China. Charles currently serves as the Chief Advisor to the Council on Geostrategy’s China Observatory and as a fellow at Royal United Services Institute and Mercator Institute for China Studies. He has appeared on BBC Radio 4 and Times Radio, written for The Spectator, the Sunday Telegraph, the Financial Times and The Times and been quoted in The Economist, CNN, The Globe and Mail, Die Zeit, Bloomberg and Le Monde.
Dr Damian Valdez
Distinguished Fellow in Interational OrderDr Damian Valdez has lectured in the history of political thought and ideas of world order at the University of Cambridge. His work focuses on how superpowers formulate strategic priorities and how they promote ideas about governance and international order around the world. Damien also supports the Council on Geostrategy’s China Observatory. He has worked on the history and politics of Germany, the United States and Latin America, and on the politics of the Middle East. He has a BA, MPhil and PhD in history from the University of Cambridge.