Colonel Andrew Bernard (retired) is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center. His research focuses on European security, NATO and EU defense policy, transatlantic relations, and US relations with Portugal and Spain.

In 2024, Bernard joined D3 Air & Space Operations in the company’s support of the office of the secretary of the Air Force international affairs. He specializes in US export policy for advanced fighter aircraft, such as the F-35, and their associated systems and weapons.

Bernard’s career in the US Air Force began when he was commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Miami University, Ohio. He spent the majority of his career as a F-15E weapons systems officer, accumulating four hundred combat flight hours in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bernard taught at the F-15E Weapons School, was a squadron commander, and served as the 4th Fighter Wing vice commander.

In addition to his operational background, Bernard was a US Air Force foreign area officer with over a decade in Europe. He was as an exchange officer with the Belgian military, served as the deputy director of NATO’s Centre of Excellence–Defence Against Terrorism in Ankara, and was the US senior defense official/defense and air attaché to Portugal from 2018 to 2022. Bernard speaks French and Portuguese.

Bernard received a BA in history from Miami University. He also received a MA in national security affairs with honors from the Naval Postgraduate School and a MA in political and military science from the Royal Military Academy in Brussels.