Security + Geopolitics

Dr. Daniel Kliman is GMF’s senior vice president for global power shifts. He oversees a new GMF pillar on adapting the transatlantic partnership to a shifting global landscape and serves as a member of the GMF executive team.

Dr. Kliman’s prior experience spans the US government, US military, think tanks, and the private sector. In his civilian career, he led teams at the US Department of State and the Center for a New American Security. He also worked for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and at a venture-backed, defense and aerospace startup. Early in his career, he spent three years at GMF, where he spearheaded Asia-related programming and conducted pioneering research on global swing states.

Since 2015, Dr. Kliman has served as an officer in the US Navy Reserve, deploying to US Navy Central Command in 2020, and activating in 2025 to advance the Defense Innovation Unit’s global partnerships.

Through publications, US congressional testimony, and civilian government service under the current and previous three US presidential administrations, Dr. Kliman has helped to sharpen Washington’s focus on strategic competition with China. His work has shaped how the United States has adapted its alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and beyond, and informed American efforts to develop new policy tools to compete with China across all domains.

Dr. Kliman is the author of numerous think tank reports and op-eds and has published two books, “Fateful Transitions: How Democracies Manage Rising Powers, From the Eve of World War I to China’s Ascendance” and “Japan’s Security Strategy in the Post-9/11 World: Embracing a New Realpolitik”. He holds a PhD in politics from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University. 

Sameer Lalwani is a Washington, DC-based non-resident senior fellow in GMF’s Indo-Pacific program. He is also senior adviser with the Special Competitive Studies Project, a nonresident senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, and a research affiliate with the MIT Security Studies Program. His research interests include deterrence, conventional military competition, technology alliances, and Indo-Pacific security. He is also a contributing editor to War on the Rocks.

Lalwani was previously a senior expert at the US Institute of Peace, where he led work sponsored by the US Department of Defense on the India-China battlespace (military strategy that integrates multiple armed forces into a theater of operation) and on US-India defense technology cooperation, including on INDUS-X. He was also director of the South Asia Program at the Stimson Center, an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, a term member with the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Stanton Nuclear Security postdoctoral fellow at the RAND Corporation. 

Lalwani’s work has been published in leading academic journals and analytical outlets. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Berkeley and a PhD from MIT.