Expertise Iran, North Korea, Nuclear Terrorism, Nuclear Weapons Policy
Eric Brewer is a deputy vice president for NTI’s Nuclear Materials Security Program. In this role, he leads efforts to address global nuclear proliferation challenges, including Iran and North Korea, as well as NTI’s efforts to develop and promote approaches to nuclear energy development that strengthen nonproliferation and nuclear security. He also assists the vice president in managing the NMS program.
Prior to joining NTI in 2022, Brewer served as senior fellow and deputy director with the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he authored reports on topics such as Iran’s nuclear program, the role of disinformation in nuclear crises, and how geopolitical trends are shaping the future proliferation environment. He also helped lead and manage PONI, the nuclear community’s premier program focused on developing the next generation of nuclear experts.
From 2017 to 2018, Brewer served as the director for counterproliferation at the National Security Council (NSC), where he was responsible for coordinating U.S. policy to prevent and reverse the spread of nuclear weapons, their delivery systems, and related technologies. While at the NSC, he played a lead role implementing elements of U.S. North Korea policy. From 2014 to 2017, Brewer served as deputy national intelligence officer for WMD and proliferation at the National Intelligence Council. In that capacity, he led the Intelligence Community’s (IC) analysis of foreign nuclear weapons capabilities and intentions, proliferation trends, and over-the-horizon proliferation threats. This included IC assessments on Iran’s nuclear program during U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran and monitoring Iran’s implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He also routinely represented the IC in White House meetings and briefings to Congress. From 2008 to 2014, Mr. Brewer held several positions at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), including Senior Intelligence Analyst for Iran.
Mr. Brewer was a 2018–2019 Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He also served as a fellow with the Nonproliferation Graduate Program at the National Nuclear Security Administration in the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation from 2007 to 2008.
Mr. Brewer has authored numerous articles in publications including The Washington Post, The Washington Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and The Atlantic. His expertise and analysis has been featured in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, and CNN, among others.
Mr. Brewer received an MA in security policy studies from the George Washington University, an MS in strategic intelligence from the National Intelligence University, and a BA in international relations from the University of San Diego.
Eric Brewer, deputy vice president for NTI’s Nuclear Materials Security Program, co-authored a piece for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace titled “South Korea’s Nuclear Flirtations Highlight the Growing Risks of Allied Proliferation.”
Deputy Vice President for NTI’s Nuclear Materials Security Program Eric Brewer writes that “although Russia’s war [in Ukraine] has created nuclear risks, the risk that it will unleash a wave of nuclear proliferation is lower than many believe.”
Eric Brewer calls on Washington to improve its ability to detect and respond to Iran’s nuclear activities now that its nuclear program enters “dangerous new territory” with enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb.
Building a safer, more secure, and more proliferation-resistant nuclear fuel cycle
Improving verification to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation
Past Project An international bank to supply nations with low-enriched uranium (LEU) to operate nuclear power reactors in case of supply disruption.
