John J. Brandon is the senior director of The Asia Foundation’s International Relations programs, as well as the associate director of the Washington, DC office, Brandon managed the Foundation’s quadrennial “America’s Role in Asia” project in 2004 and 2008 as well as “Asian Views on America’s Role in Asia” in 2016, which examine U.S.-Asian relations in-depth and made recommendations on U.S. policy. His other responsibilities include monitoring U.S. policy toward the Asia-Pacific region and managing program activities in Washington. In 2007-2008 he participated in the Stanley Foundation project on “New Power Dynamics in Southeast Asia.” A Southeast Asia specialist by training, John Brandon’s opinion pieces on the region have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, and other newspapers around the United States. He is the editor of Burma/Myanmar Towards the Twenty-First Century: The Dynamics of Continuity and Change (New York: Open Society Institute, 1997) a contributor to Burma: Prospects for a Democratic Future (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1998) and co-author of The 1990 Election in Myanmar (Washington, D.C.: The International Human Rights Law Group, 1990). He also served as a member of the Council of Foreign Relations Task Force study, chaired by former Senator Robert Kerrey, titled, The United States and Southeast Asia: A Policy Agenda for the New Administration (July 2001). In 2004-2005, Brandon served as a member of The Stanley Foundation’s project that addressed “United States Policy in Southeast Asia: Issues and Options.”

Education: Bachelor’s degree in History from Drew University; master’s degree in Political Science and Southeast Asian studies from Northern Illinois University.

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