Alexander Benard (born October 24, 1983 in New York) is an Afghan American attorney and conservative political commentator.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Personal 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Early life and education

Benard grew up in Maryland, California, and Austria. He holds a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

[edit] Career

Benard currently works at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, an international law firm, where he focuses on cross-border transactions.^[1]

He is a frequent contributor to the National Review,^[2] where he writes columns on U.S. foreign and domestic policy. He has also written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Policy Review, the Journal of Strategic Studies, Foreign Policy Digest, The American Thinker, and The New Majority.

Benard has appeared on CNN's No Bias, No Bull with Campbell Brown.^[3]

He has worked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Department of Defense. He has also worked in the office of Senator Chuck Hagel.

Benard has conducted research for books written by two prominent foreign policy scholars: Larry Diamond's The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World;^[4] and Dennis Ross's The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace.

He has been awarded several fellowships, including the Claremont Institute Publius Fellowship, the Freedom House Religious Freedom Fellowship, and the Foreign Policy Association John C. Whitehead Fellowship.

[edit] Personal

Alexander Benard is the son of Zalmay Khalilzad and Cheryl Benard.^[5] Zalmay Khalilzad is an American foreign policy scholar and diplomat who most recently served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Cheryl Benard is an author and political scientist at the RAND Corporation.

[edit] External links

• "How to Handle a Tyrant", Benard in the National Review.
• "Democracy in Europe", Benard in the National Review.

[edit] References