Department of State

Bio, via US Department of State:

Prior to his appointment to the Bureau of Counterterrorism, Mr. Harnisch served as the Director for Transnational Threats and the Director for Afghanistan at the National Security Council. A Virginia native, he returned to the area following several years in Silicon Valley where he served as a Strategic Sourcing and Operations Product Development Manager at Apple. Before his time in the private sector, Chris worked in the public policy and defense arenas. From 2011 to 2012, he served as an Army Intelligence Officer on NATO’s counter-corruption task force in Afghanistan. Previous to that, Chris worked on the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute, where he researched and wrote about al-Qa’ida’s emerging safe havens, focusing especially on those in Yemen and Somalia. Chris served on the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney. Chris earned a B.A. in International Studies from Middlebury College and an MBA and M.A. in International Relations from Yale University. He has published pieces on foreign policy in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and National Review Online, and he has appeared as a guest analyst on various public panels and television and radio broadcasts. Recently, he has worked on initiatives aimed at bridging the civil-military divide, including co-chairing the Veterans Summit at Yale University. Chris is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Bio, via Alaska World Affairs:

Senior Advisor Jon Harrison serves as the senior administration official for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. In this capacity he advances policies critical to the liberty, prosperity and security of the United States, from safeguarding American interests in the frontier domains of space, the polar regions and the world’s oceans, to driving international environmental policies that balance energy security, economic growth, and natural resource protection. Protecting the public’s health at home and abroad, reducing conflict and instability related to territorial issues, combating conservation crimes and expanding America’s dominance in science, technology and innovation all feature prominently in his portfolio.Harrison joined the administration from the private sector in Los Angeles, where prior to his appointment he had a career as an entrepreneur and in international consulting, publishing and public affairs. Most recently Harrison helped to build and grow several companies, including Sightline Map – a software startup bringing topographical data manipulation, visualization, storage and sharing at scale to private and public-sector users around the the world – and Seatrec, a NASA/JPL spin-off developing technologies to harvest renewable energy from barometric differences in the ocean, to power underwater autonomous systems for research, industry, and defense. A former member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, Harrison co-founded the RAND Corporation’s RANDNext program, and was an advisor to the Helena Group Foundation’s Security Council. Harrison was an elected Delegate for California’s 33rd Congressional District to the 2016 Republican National Convention. Harrison received a bachelors degree in Politics & International Relations from the University of Southampton.