Alexander Young is a project assistant in the Forward Defense program of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, where he supports the program’s defense industry, innovation, and technology work. Young initially joined Forward Defense as a young global professional in the fall of 2024.

Young is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he earned a master of science with merit in global politics. He previously graduated with high honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, completing a double major in political science and global studies with emphases in international relations and the Middle East and North Africa region. Having studied and worked in both Europe and the Middle East, Young wrote his master’s dissertation about the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on the geopolitics of the eastern Mediterranean and its natural gas projects.

Previously, Young also worked as an English teacher in underserved communities in Israel, having taught at An-Najah Comprehensive Junior High School in Rahat and Dizengoff Elementary School in Tel Aviv.

Young’s interests include geopolitics, ethnic and religious conflict, natural resources, defense industry issues, conflict resolution, and conflict stabilization.