Robert O'Brien

Robert C. O’Brien is the cofounder and chairman of American Global Strategies LLC. As the 27th US national security advisor from 2019 to 2021, O’Brien served as former President Trump’s principal advisor on all aspects of American foreign policy and national security affairs.

During O’Brien’s time as national security advisor, the United States orchestrated the historic Abraham Accords in the Middle East, brokered economic normalization between Serbia and Kosovo, achieved significant defense spending increases among our NATO allies, and increased cooperation with America’s allies across the Indo-Pacific. O’Brien also brought to the NSC a renewed focus on defense and industrial base issues. A longtime advocate of sea power and a 355-ship Navy, O’Brien visited leading shipyards during his tenure and spent time at defense plants and with US troops at bases around the world.

Before serving as NSA, he was the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs with the personal rank of ambassador. In that capacity, O’Brien was directly involved in the return of over 25 detainees and hostages to the United States. He also previously served as cochairman of the US Department of State’s Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan under both Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

O’Brien was also a presidentially appointed member of the US Cultural Property Advisory Committee from 2008 to 2011. In 2005, O’Brien was nominated by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate to serve as a US representative to the 60th session of the UN General Assembly. Earlier in his career, O’Brien served as a senior legal officer for the UN Security Council commission that decided claims against Iraq arising out of the first Gulf War. He was a major in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the US Army Reserve.

In July 2022, O’Brien was elected as the chairman of the board of directors of the Richard Nixon Foundation. He serves as cochair of the Nixon Seminar on Conservative Realism and National Security and is also cofounder and partner emeritus at Larson LLP in Los Angeles, a nationally recognized litigation boutique.

O’Brien holds a JD from the UC Berkeley School of Law. He received his BA in political science, cum laude, from UCLA.