Jonathan E. Hillman

Senior Fellow for Geoeconomics

Profile picture

Expert Bio

Jonathan E. Hillman is senior fellow for geoeconomics at the Council on Foreign Relations. His expertise spans economic and security issues, including investment, trade, infrastructure, and technology. He is the author of The Digital Silk Road: China’s Quest to Wire the World and Win the Future and The Emperor’s New Road: China and the Project of the Century.

Hillman has served as a senior advisor to three U.S. cabinet officials. From 2023 to 2024, he advised the secretary of commerce on investment and infrastructure issues and was a lead member of the U.S. negotiating team for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. From 2022 to 2023, he served on the secretary of state’s policy planning staff as the lead member covering economics and co-lead for technology. From 2014 to 2016, he directed the research and writing process at the office of the U.S. trade representative for reports, speeches, and other materials explaining U.S. trade and investment policy.

From 2016 to 2022, Hillman was a senior fellow and director of the Reconnecting Asia Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has also worked as a researcher at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, at the Council on Foreign Relations for then president emeritus Leslie H. Gelb, and in Kyrgyzstan as a Fulbright Scholar. Hillman is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a presidential scholar, and Brown University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the Garrison Prize for best thesis in international relations.

affiliations

  • U.S. Army Reserve, captain 
Clear All
Regions
Topics
Type

Top Stories on CFR

Democratic Republic of Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo has been mired in conflict for years. As fresh fighting surges in the east, the roots of today’s violence can be traced back to old problems. 

Foreign Policy

The Daily News Brief

Cuba

The Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants includes a plan to transport potentially thousands to Guantánamo Bay. It is likely to spur international condemnation and a range of legal challenges.