Alexander Pascal

Alex Pascal is a Senior Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and a Professor of Practice at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Alex has served for over a decade as a national security and domestic policymaker in the United States Government, including seven years at the White House. His current research focuses on governance and policy for artificial intelligence.

Most recently, as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy from January 2021 through June 2023, Alex helped lead Administration policy initiatives on a range of technology issues, notably artificial intelligence and social media platform accountability, as well as issues related to democracy, countering hate, immigration, and the arts and humanities. From 2009-17, Alex served on the National Security Council (NSC) staff at the White House and as Senior Policy Adviser to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. In these roles, Alex managed the day-to-day operations of the U.S. government’s national security policymaking system; helped lead U.S. policy on the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and multilateral affairs; and served as the principal policy aide to the National Security Advisor.

Alex was previously a Nonresident Scholar in the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, taught as an adjunct faculty member at New York University, advised private sector and non-profit clients on U.S. policy and the intersection of geopolitics, technology, and trade, and worked at democracy-supporting NGOs on the ground in the Middle East and Africa. He holds a master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in English from Stanford University. His commentary has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, TIME, Just Security, and the National Interest.