Kiron Skinner

Biography

International relations, US foreign policy, and political strategy expert Kiron Skinner is the Taube Family Chair of International Relations and Politics at Pepperdine School of Public Policy. She is the founding director of the Grand Strategy Program in the School of Public Policy and the founding director of the University's Institute for Diplomacy, Security, and Innovation. She is also the W. Glenn Campbell Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a senior advisor to the president of the Heritage Foundation.

Skinner previously served as the Taube Professor for International Relations and Politics at Carnegie Mellon University, where she founded and directed several centers and institutes, including the Carnegie Mellon University Washington Semester Program. Skinner's past government service includes membership on the US Department of Defense's Defense Policy Board as an adviser on the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, the Defense Business Board, the Chief of Naval Operations' Executive Panel, the National Academies Committee on Behavioral and Social Science Research to Improve Intelligence Analysis for National Security, the National Academies Committee on International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment, and the National Security Education Board. From 2012 to 2015 she served on Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett's Advisory Commission on African American Affairs. 

From September 2018 to August 2019, Skinner served as director of the Office of Policy Planning and as senior policy adviser to the US secretary of state. In those roles, she reengaged the Department of State in red-team exercises on regional conflicts, spearheaded ties between the State and Defense Departments in critical areas, began a nationally discussed and debated discussion on the need for an Article X on China, and fostered transatlantic partnerships through numerous strategic dialogues, including the first Policy Planners Summit for NATO. She played a central role in creating the Commission on Unalienable Rights and rechartering the Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and she served as the secretariat for both entities. 

Skinner has expertise in cyber security and emerging technologies. At Carnegie Mellon University, she helped create interdisciplinary undergraduate and master's degrees in cybersecurity and military history. She also served as a convener for the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command to bring national thought leaders to Fort Meade. Skinner's technology work has been supported by the Bradley Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Scaife Foundation.

Skinner is an award-winning and best-selling author with scholarship focused on the life and public policy of former president Ronald Reagan. Her coauthored books Reagan, In His Own Hand (2001) and Reagan, A Life in Letters (2003) were New York Times best sellers. Reagan, In His Own Hand won the Hoover Institution's Uncommon Book Award in 2002 and was serialized in the New York Times Magazine on December 31, 2000. Reagan, A Life in Letters was selected as one of the best books of 2003 by the Los Angeles Times. It was Time magazine's cover story on September 29, 2003, and was the subject of a September 29, 2003, editorial written by the New York Times editorial board. The Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin (2007), a book Professor Skinner coauthored with Serhiy Kudelia, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, and Condoleezza Rice, was excerpted on the opinion page of the New York Times on September 15, 2007. A frequent contributor of opinion essays, Professor Skinner has written for The American Spectator, CNN.com, Forbes.com, Foreign Policy.com, The National Interest, National Review Online, the New York Times, RealClear Defense, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She also regularly provides commentary on FOX News.

Other academic activities in which Professor Skinner is engaged include serving as an associate editor of Telos, a leading humanities journal, and the editorial board of the Texas National Security Review. She is the general series editor on Ideology and American Politics for Palgrave Macmillan.

Skinner is a recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Molloy College on Long Island and the Navy Superior Public Service Award by the Chief of Naval Operations.

Skinner is a lifetime director on the board of the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, a board member of Grove City College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a member of the board of the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles, California. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.

Recent Coverage 

Publications 

Harris, Douglas N., Birzer, Bradley, Graham, Carol, Hanna, Mona, Hess, Frederick M., Hoover, Gary, Kalil, Ariel, Lembke, Anna, Romm, Joseph, Sharkey, Patrick, Shierholz, Heidi, Skinner, Kiron K., Strain, Michael, Winship, Scott, Nair, Anjana, and Nordgren, Emilia. The State of the Nation: 2025 Report. State of the Nation Project, Tulane University, 2025.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.17226/27787.

Keshavarz, Alma, and Skinner, Kiron K. “Global Order after Ukraine.” Orbis 67, no. 3 (2023): 307–46.

Chin, John, Skinner, Kiron K., and Yoo, Clay. “Understanding National Security Strategies Through Time.” Texas National Security Review 6, no. 4 (Fall 2023).

Chung, Eunbin, Pechenkina, Anna O., and Skinner, Kiron K. “Competitors in Aid: How International Rivalry Affects Public Support for Aid under Various Frames.” Political Research Quarterly, November 2022. 

Media 

August 7, 2025 - OPINION: "France is no U.S. partner in the Middle East" | Washington Times

June 30, 2025 - OPINION: "Trump’s new American doctrine means peace through strength has returned" | FOX News

May 20, 2025 - OPINION: "Trump’s Middle East Trip Flexes New Grand Strategy" | The American Spectator

May 15, 2025 - VIDEO: "Gulf States want a world marked by regional stability and economic prosperity, says Kiron Skinner" | FOX News

May 15, 2025 - VIDEO: "Trump, Netanyahu relationship is 'ironclad,' says former Trump official" | FOX News

May 15, 2025 - VIDEO: "The resurgence of America's power is 'critical,' Kiron Skinner warns" | FOX News

February 23, 2025 - VIDEO: "Trump has pushed Arab states to think 'creatively, quickly and aggressively,' expert says" | FOX News

Education

• PhD, Harvard University
• MA, Harvard University
• BA, Spelman College
• AA, Sacramento City College