Ian Bremmer

Ian Bremmer (born November 12, 1969) is an American political scientist specializing in US foreign policy, states in transition, and global political risk. He is the president and founder of Eurasia Group, a leading global political risk research and consulting firm, and a professor at Columbia University. Eurasia Group provides financial, corporate, and government clients with information and insight on how political developments move markets. Bremmer is of Armenian and German descent.

Bremmer has authored/published eight books, including the national bestsellers Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World (Portfolio, May 2012), which details risks and opportunities in a world without global leadership, and The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations (Portfolio, May 2010), which describes the global phenomenon of state capitalism and its implications for economics and politics. He also wrote The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall (Simon & Schuster, 2006), selected by The Economist as one of the best books of 2006.

Bremmer is a frequent writer and commentator in the media. He is a contributor for the Financial Times A-List, and writes an opinion blog for Reuters.com as well as "The Call" blog on ForeignPolicy.com. He has also published articles in the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Harvard Business Review, and Foreign Affairs. He is a panelist for CNN International's "Connect the World" and appears regularly on CNBC, Fox News Channel, National Public Radio, and other networks.

Bremmer is most widely known for advances in political risk; called the "rising guru" in the field by the Economist and, more directly, bringing political science as a discipline to the financial markets. In 2001, Bremmer created Wall Street’s first global political risk index, now the GPRI (Global Political Risk Index) —a joint venture with investment bank Citigroup. Bremmer's definition of an emerging market as "a country where politics matters at least as much as economics to the market" is a standard reference in the political risk field.

Among his professional appointments, Bremmer serves on the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. In 2007, he was named as a 'Young Global Leader' of the World Economic Forum, and in 2010 founded and was appointed Chair of the Forum's Global Agenda Council for Geopolitical Risk.

Bremmer received his B.A. at Tulane University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University in 1994. He then served on the faculty of the Hoover Institution where, at 25, he became the Institution’s youngest ever National Fellow. He has held research and faculty positions at Columbia University (where he presently teaches), the EastWest Institute, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the World Policy Institute, where he has served as Senior Fellow since 1997.