Colin Brooks is a nonresident senior fellow with the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programs. He is also senior director for customer relations in Northrop Grumman’s Corporate Global Business Development Office. In this role, he serves as a primary liaison to the US Department of Defense, the White House and National Security Council, and other interagency partners to advance Northrop Grumman’s priorities.

From 2019 to 2025, Brooks served as a senior professional staff member on the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, where he led the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan-Pakistan, and global counterterrorism portfolios. He advised the chairman and senate leadership on policy, legislation, and oversight, and coordinated high-level engagements with the Department of State, the White House, and US missions abroad. He managed oversight of more than eight billion dollars in State Department programs and helped author and enact major legislation on Iran sanctions, US-Israel security assistance, Middle East air and missile defense, and Syria policy.

Prior to his senate service, Brooks was special assistant and advisor to the under secretary of defense for policy, covering Indo-Pacific security affairs, special operations, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. He contributed to the implementation of the 2018 National Defense Strategy and was awarded the Medal for Exceptional Public Service, the Department of Defense’s highest civilian honor for noncareer employees.

A former infantry officer with twenty-one years of service, Brooks led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and guided units through Army modernization. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds a master’s degree from Central Michigan University.