Alexander Benard is an American attorney and commentator on U.S. public policy.

Early life and education

Benard grew up in Maryland, California, USA and in Austria. He holds a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College

Claremont McKenna College

Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...

 and a J.D. from Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...

.

Career

Benard currently works as managing director of a consulting and investment firm focused on the Middle East and Central Asia. Prior to that, he was a corporate lawyer at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, an international law firm, where he focused on cross-border transactions.

He has written columns on U.S. foreign and domestic policy for the Wall Street Journal, the National Review

National Review

National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...

, World Affairs, the New York Post

New York Post

The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

, Forbes

Forbes

Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

, Policy Review

Policy Review

Policy Review is one of America's leading conservative journals. It was founded by the Heritage Foundation and was for many years the foundation's flagship publication. In 2001, the publication was acquired by the Stanford University-based Hoover Institution, though it maintains its office on...

, the Journal of Strategic Studies

Journal of Strategic Studies

The Journal of Strategic Studies, first published in 1978, is a multi-disciplinary review of forward-looking articles on military and diplomatic strategy . It is published six times per year....

, Foreign Policy Digest, Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel.Originally, the magazine was a quarterly...

, and World Politics Review.

Benard has appeared on CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

's No Bias, No Bull with Campbell Brown

Campbell Brown

Campbell Brown is an American television news reporter and anchor. She previously hosted an eponymous primetime show on CNN and was formerly co-anchor of NBC's Weekend Today...

.

He has worked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Washington Institute for Near East Policy

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy is a think tank based in Washington, D.C. focused on United States foreign policy in the Middle East. It was established by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in 1985...

, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Department of Defense. He has also worked in the office of Senator Chuck Hagel

Chuck Hagel

Charles Timothy "Chuck" Hagel is a former United States Senator from Nebraska. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected in 1996 and was reelected in 2002...

.

Benard has conducted research for books written by two prominent foreign policy scholars: Larry Diamond

Larry Diamond

Larry Diamond is a leading contemporary scholar in the field of democracy studies. He is presently a professor of Sociology and Political Science at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative policy think tank...

's The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World; and Dennis Ross

Dennis Ross

Dennis B. Ross is an American diplomat and author. He has served as the Director of Policy Planning in the State Department under President George H. W...

's The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace.

He has been awarded several fellowships, including the Claremont Institute Publius Fellowship, the Freedom House

Freedom House

Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...

 Religious Freedom Fellowship, and the Foreign Policy Association

Foreign Policy Association

The Foreign Policy Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring the American public to learn more about the world. Founded in 1918, it serves as a catalyst for developing awareness, understanding of, and providing informed opinions on global issues...

 John C. Whitehead

John C. Whitehead

John Cunningham Whitehead is an American banker and civil servant, currently a board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and, until his resignation in May 2006, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.-Biography:He was born in Evanston, Illinois...

 Fellowship. He was recently named a Future Leader in Foreign Policy by the Foreign Policy Initiative

Foreign Policy Initiative

The Foreign Policy Initiative is a non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt organization under Section 501 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. FPI seeks to promote an active U.S...

.

Personal

Alexander Benard is the son of Zalmay Khalilzad

Zalmay Khalilzad

Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad is a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and president of Khalilzad Associates, an international business consulting firm based in Washington, DC. He was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush...

 and Cheryl Benard

Cheryl Benard

Cheryl Benard is an adjunct researcher with the RAND Corporation and President of Metis Analytics, an Alexandria, Virginia-based research company. In 2010, she founded The Bamiyan Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to the rebuilding of the Bamiyan Buddhas and to the support of cultural...

. Zalmay Khalilzad

Zalmay Khalilzad

Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad is a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and president of Khalilzad Associates, an international business consulting firm based in Washington, DC. He was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush...

 is an Afghan American

Afghan American

An Afghan American refers to an American with heritage or origins in Afghanistan.-History and population:Afghan Americans have a long history of immigrating to the United States, as they may have arrived as early as the 1920s...

 foreign policy scholar and diplomat who most recently served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Cheryl Benard

Cheryl Benard

Cheryl Benard is an adjunct researcher with the RAND Corporation and President of Metis Analytics, an Alexandria, Virginia-based research company. In 2010, she founded The Bamiyan Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to the rebuilding of the Bamiyan Buddhas and to the support of cultural...

 is an author and political scientist at the RAND

RAND

RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...

 Corporation and the founder of The Bamiyan Project, a non-profit organization seeking to rebuild the Bamiyan Buddhas.

External links

• "How to Handle a Tyrant", Benard in the National Review.
• "Democracy in Europe", Benard in the National Review.