Zack Cooper holds the Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He focuses on Asian security issues and has coauthored or coedited numerous studies, including Asia-Pacific Rebalance 2025: Capabilities, Presence, and Partnerships (CSIS, 2016);The ANZUS Alliance in an Ascending Asia (Australian National University, 2015); Federated Defense in Asia (CSIS, 2014); Assessing the Asia-Pacific Rebalance (CSIS, 2014); and Strategic Japan: New Approaches to Foreign Policy and the U.S.-Japan Alliance (CSIS, 2014). His research has also appeared in Security Studies, the Washington Quarterly, the National Interest, and International Security, and he works closely with the CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.

Prior to joining CSIS, Dr. Cooper worked as a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He previously served on the White House staff as assistant to the deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism. He also worked as a civil servant in the Pentagon, first as a foreign affairs specialist and then as a special assistant to the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy. He received a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.P.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Princeton University. His doctoral dissertation, entitled “Tides of Fortune: The Rise and Decline of Great Militaries,” explains how changing perceptions of relative power alter national defense policies.