Dr. Peter Brookes was The Heritage Foundation’s Senior Research Fellow for Weapons of Mass Destruction and Counter Proliferation.

While at Heritage, he also served for ten years as a commissioner with the congressionally mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, nominated by two different Speakers of the House of Representatives.

Dr. Brookes also worked as a freelance foreign policy columnist for the NY Post and the Boston Herald. He has also been a contributing editor at Armed Forces Journal and Townhall Magazine and is the author of: A Devil's Triangle: Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Rogue States (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).

He has testified 10 times before six different Senate and House of Representatives committees as both a public official and a private citizen. Dr. Brookes is also a frequent public speaker around the country and the world, making addresses in 26 U.S. states (plus D.C.) and 25 countries, including State Department public diplomacy speaking programs in Japan, Germany, Australia, Poland, Austria, Ukraine, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea.

He has made thousands of appearances on national, local, and international TV and radio.

Dr. Brookes has traveled to nearly 70 countries on five continents, including the then-Soviet Union and North Korea, and has served as an international election observer in Indonesia and Cambodia.

Before joining Heritage in 2002, he served in the administration of President George W. Bush as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific affairs. In this post, he was responsible for U.S. defense policy for 38 countries and five bilateral defense alliances in Asia. He supported the Bush campaign as an advisor in 2000 and 2004 and served as a drafter of the Republican National Committee’s 2000 foreign policy platform at the Philadelphia Convention.

Prior to serving in the Bush administration, he was a professional staff member with the House International Relations Committee. He also served with the CIA and the State Department. In the private sector, he worked in the defense industry.

Prior to beginning his civilian career, Dr. Brookes served in the U.S. navy in aviation and intelligence assignments in Asia, the Middle East and Central America, accumulating more than 1,000 hours aboard Navy EP-3 aircraft. Now a retired naval officer with the rank of Commander, while a reservist, he served with the National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Office of Naval Intelligence, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Office of the Vice President.

He holds a doctorate from Georgetown University and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. He received his bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, appointed to Annapolis by the late Congressman Jack Kemp (R-NY). He also participated in Naval Academy’s Cox Fund language study program to Germany.

Dr. Brookes is also an honor graduate of the Defense Language Institute, where he studied Russian, and the Naval War College. He has taught at the National Defense University and was an associate professor at the Joint Military Intelligence College at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

He has won awards in five different fields including academics, athletics, outdoor writing, the military, and the media including the Navy League of New York's Frank Knox Media Award; Joint Service Commendation Medal; Navy Commendation Medal (three); Navy Achievement Medal; Defense Language Institute's Kellogg Award; Joint Chiefs of Staff service badge; and Naval Aviation Observer wings.