Commissioner Brookes was reappointed to the Commission by House Minority Leader John Boehner on December 6, 2007, for a second two-year term expiring December 31, 2009.
Peter Brookes develops and communicates the Heritage Foundation’s stance on foreign policy and national security affairs through media appearances, research, published articles, congressional testimony, and speaking engagements.
Brookes also serves on the advisory committee of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation and Terrorism.
In addition, he is a weekly columnist for the nation’s fifth largest newspaper, the New York Post. His column also runs in several other domestic and foreign newspapers and on numerous news and opinion-oriented Web sites. He is also a contributing editor for Armed Forces Journal magazine. Brookes has had more than 300 articles published in over 50 newspapers, journals and magazines. He is the author of A Devil's Triangle: Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Rogue States (Rowman & Littlefield, hardback 2005, paperback 2007).
Brookes has made nearly 1,250 appearances as a commentator on TV and radio, appearing on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, BBC, CBC, VOA, Al Hurra, and Radio Free Asia, among others. He has hosted major market talk radio programs, including XM, and has been quoted by many of the world’s largest newspapers and magazines.
He has testified numerous times before both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives as a public official and as a private citizen.. He is also a frequent public speaker around the country and the world, making more than 200 addresses in over 15 countries, including participation in State Department public diplomacy speaking programs in Japan, Germany, Australia, Poland, Austria, Ukraine, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea.
Before coming to Heritage, Brookes served in the George W. Bush Administration as the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he was responsible for U.S. defense policy for 38 countries and five bilateral defense alliances. Prior to joining the Bush Administration, he worked as a professional staff member with the Committee on International Relations in the U.S. House of Representatives. He also served with the Central Intelligence Agency, State Department, at the United Nations, and in the private sector defense and intelligence industry.
Brookes is a decorated military veteran, having served on active duty with the U.S. Navy in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East in aviation and intelligence billets. Brookes has logged more than 1300 flight hours aboard U.S. Navy EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft. Now a retired Navy reserve commander, during his reserve career he served with the National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Naval Intelligence, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Office of the Vice President, working as an intelligence analyst, strategic debriefer, Russian-language interpreter, defense attaché, policy advisor, and associate professor at the Joint Military Intelligence College.
Brookes is a doctoral candidate at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (B.S., Engineering); the Defense Language Institute (Diploma, Russian); the Naval War College (Diploma); and the Johns Hopkins University (M.A., Government). He has studied German and Polish. He has traveled to more than 50 countries on five continents and has served as an international election observer in Indonesia and Cambodia.
He has served in political positions at the local, state, and national level, including being a drafter of the Republican National Committee’s 2000 foreign policy platform at the convention. Brookes served as an advisor to the 2000 and 2004 Bush campaigns on foreign policy and has briefed 2008 presidential candidates.
Brookes’ awards include the Navy League of New York’s Frank Knox Media Award; the Joint Service Commendation Medal; the Navy Commendation Medal (3 awards); the Navy Achievement Medal; several naval and joint unit awards; the Defense Language Institute's Kellogg Award; the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s service badge; and Naval Aviation Observer wings. He was also an All-Navy wrestling champion.