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Meghan L. O’Sullivan is the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project, and Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. The Belfer Center – which includes more than 300 scholars, practitioners, and former policymakers and consistently ranks as the world’s top academic think-tank – advances policy-relevant knowledge in the areas of international relations, security, technology, science, and energy and the environment. 

Dr. O’Sullivan draws on her broad experience in government, diplomacy, academia, and business to contribute insights that benefit her students and colleagues, the U.S. government, global businesses, and the public debate. She takes pride in teaching and mentoring the world’s future leaders as a member of the Harvard Kennedy School faculty since 2008.

O’Sullivan’s scholarship continues to be at the nexus of traditional disciplines, examining topics at the intersection of geopolitics, science, markets, and policy. Her work on large changes in the energy system – from advances in technology to extract oil and gas to the global move away from carbon-intensive fuels – has shaped how policymakers and academics alike view these issues. Her publications in this area include her award-winning 2017 book Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power and “Green Upheaval: The New Geopolitics of Energy,” a co-authored Foreign Affairs article with Jason Bordoff that was selected as one of the  published in that journal in 2022. O’Sullivan also has written on the intersection of economic tools, markets, and foreign policy, including her 2003 Shrewd Sanctions: Statecraft and State Sponsors of Terrorism, which is still used on syllabi across the country today. Her most recent book, Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama, was co-edited with Steve Hadley, Peter Feaver, and Will Inboden, and was released on February 15, 2023. 

O’Sullivan has served in multiple senior policymaking roles and has advised national security officials in both Republican and Democratic administrations. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her public service, including the U.S. Defense Department’s highest honor for civilians (the Distinguished Public Service Medal) and the State Department’s Superior Honor Award (which she has received three times).

O’Sullivan is currently a member of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Between 2004 and 2007, she was special assistant to President George W. Bush and was Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan during the last two years of her tenure. In her job at the National Security Council, O’Sullivan was responsible for identifying and building consensus around new policy directions in these countries as well as overseeing their execution. From July to December 2013, O’Sullivan was the Vice Chair of the All Party Talks in Northern Ireland, which sought to resolve outstanding issues in the peace process. 

O’Sullivan also has extensive experience advising the private sector on geopolitical risk and in board leadership and advisory roles in non-profit organizations. She is a Senior Director at the strategic consulting firm Macro Advisory Partners, and is the Chair of the North American Group of the Trilateral Commission. From 2017 to 2023, she was a director on the board of United Technologies, and—after the merger between United Technologies and Raytheon in 2020—on the board of the successor company, Raytheon Technologies. She is also a member of the International Advisory Group for the British law firm Linklaters. O’Sullivan serves on the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, is a trustee of the International Crisis Group, and is a member of the board of The Mission Continues, a non-profit organization helping veterans.

O’Sullivan earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and a masters of science in economics and doctorate in politics from Oxford University. She was a Henry Crown Fellow from 2015 to 2017 and a Henry Luce Fellow in Indonesia from 1991 to 1992.