معرفی
Harold Trinkunas is a Senior Research Scholar and Deputy Director at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), part of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He previously served as the Charles W. Robinson Chair and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he directed the Latin America Initiative in the Foreign Policy program.
Trinkunas holds a doctorate in political science from Stanford University (1999). He was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and has held academic positions at the Naval Postgraduate School, where he was an associate professor and chair of the Department of National Security Affairs.
His research focuses on foreign policy, governance, and security, with a particular emphasis on Latin America. Key themes include civil-military relations, ungoverned spaces, terrorism financing, border politics, transnational organized crime, and the role of non-state actors in governance. His interdisciplinary work bridges political science, security studies, and international relations.
His most recent publications reflect a sustained engagement with global security challenges, including the dynamics of military contestation in populist regimes, the governance of ungoverned spaces, and border politics in the Western Hemisphere. These works collectively examine how state authority is challenged and reconstituted in contexts of weakened sovereignty.
- Alfred Stepan Lifetime Achievement Award in Defense, Public Security, and Democracy (2025)
Trinkunas has held leadership roles in major research institutions and has advised on defense and security policy. He has led research initiatives on defense reform, peaceful change in international relations, and nuclear risk in the global information ecosystem. His work often involves collaborative, multi-institutional projects and edited volumes that shape scholarly and policy debates.
He is affiliated with CISAC, a leading interdisciplinary research center at Stanford focused on international security, nuclear risk, cyber policy, and global governance. The center supports a wide range of scholars, policy fellows, and research programs in which Trinkunas plays a central role.
