Alex Pascal is the Executive Director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Alex has 20+ years of public, private and non-profit sector experience, including over a decade serving in senior leadership roles as a national security and domestic policymaker in the United States Government. Prior to joining BKC, Alex was a Senior Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, where his research focused on governance for artificial intelligence, and as Professor of Practice at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
From January 2021 through June 2023, Alex served as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, helping lead the Administration policy initiatives on a range of technology issues, notably artificial intelligence and social media platform accountability, as well as issues related to democracy, countering hate, immigration, and the arts and humanities. From 2009-17, Alex served on the National Security Council (NSC) staff at the White House and as Senior Policy Adviser to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. In these roles, Alex managed the day-to-day operations of the U.S. Government’s national security policymaking system; helped lead U.S. policy on the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and multilateral affairs; and served as the principal policy aide to the National Security Advisor.
Alex was previously a Nonresident Scholar in the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, taught as an adjunct faculty member at New York University, advised private sector and non-profit clients on U.S. policy and the intersection of geopolitics, technology, and trade, and worked at democracy-supporting NGOs on the ground in the Middle East and Africa. He holds a master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in English from Stanford University. His writing and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Tech Policy Press, Foreign Policy, TIME, Just Security, The Commonwealth Beacon, and the National Interest.
