Jake Sullivan is a former US National Security Adviser (2021–2025) who is now Kissinger Professor of the Practice of Statecraft and World Order at the Harvard Kennedy School. He co-authored the Eight Worlds Framework for US AI strategy and wrote "The Tech High Ground," a Foreign Affairs essay on US AI strategy published after he left office.
Background and roles
Sullivan served as US National Security Adviser from 2021 to 2025. In that role he helped drive the US chip export-control regime against China, administered through the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). He subsequently became Kissinger Professor of the Practice of Statecraft and World Order at the Harvard Kennedy School.
His writing on AI policy draws on his tenure managing US-China technology competition, including export controls on advanced chips.
Positions and statements
Sullivan co-authored the Eight Worlds Framework with Tal Feldman in Foreign Affairs (January 2026), a 2x2x2 matrix intended to give Washington a strategy that works across multiple AI futures rather than a single prediction. He argues that the United States needs an approach designed for uncertainty about which AI future arrives.
On the building blocks of AI power, Sullivan treats Compute Governance as foundational and AI Diffusion as as important as frontier capability. He defends "small yard, high fence" export controls as the right framework — selective and tight rather than broad and leaky — a position compatible with the one set out in Dario Amodei — On DeepSeek and Export Controls, though Sullivan's is broader in also covering allied coordination and the techno-industrial base. He also offers an explicit defense of the Biden-era chip controls against the critique that they backfired by pushing China toward self-sufficiency.
Sullivan argues that unilateral US controls are insufficient and that "allied scale" — coordinated industrial strategy with partners — is essential. He describes an innovation-without-production trap in which the departure of US manufacturing causes process know-how to follow, eroding long-term leadership. On governance, he frames risk management as a source of legitimacy rather than only a constraint, and contends that responsible AI adoption, including ethical norms and guardrails, enables competitiveness rather than hindering it. He also holds that private-sector incentives do not always align with the national interest.
Sources
- Geopolitics in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (Foreign Affairs, 2026-01-27) — Eight Worlds framework co-authored with Feldman
- The Tech High Ground (Foreign Affairs, 2026-04-15) — first major essay since leaving the NSC; four high grounds; export-control defense; allied scale; responsible AI adoption
Relationships
- related: Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) — as National Security Adviser (2021-2025), Sullivan helped drive the BIS-administered chip export-control regime against China
- related: Eight Worlds Framework — companion piece; Eight Worlds is descriptive/analytical, Tech High Ground is prescriptive
- related: Dario Amodei — On DeepSeek and Export Controls — compatible "small yard, high fence" position; Sullivan's is broader (also covers allied scale, techno-industrial base)
- related: Superintelligence Strategy (Hendrycks, Schmidt, Wang) — overlapping deterrence logic; Sullivan gives more weight to US-China cooperation channels