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Professor of Management & Professor of Political Science

Professor Bracken is a leading expert in global competition and the strategic application of technology in business and defense. He has devoted his research and teaching to developing solutions for senior management as it deals with rapidly changing strategic developments under conditions of intense uncertainty.

At Yale he designed and teaches the new MBA required course on Problem Framing, which uses scenario techniques and alternative futures to navigate and create new value in a turbulent business environment. The tools in this course are applied to business cases in private equity, technology, energy, and political risk. Bracken is considered an expert in private equity and his analyses offers rich insights to his students — both in the classroom and the boardroom.

Bracken also teaches Business, Government, and Globalization, which examines the multinational corporation's strategy and structure under globalization; and Strategy, Technology, and War which develops technology and innovation landscapes for business and defense.

Professor Bracken is rated as the best teacher in Yale's executive education programs. He has taught in corporate education programs in the U.S. and around the world. He is a consultant to private equity funds, accounting, and insurance companies as well as to various parts of the U.S. Government. He often leads business war games for companies facing new challenges, and recently ran a game on the competitive evolution of the European asset management industry. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he serves on the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel, the Transformation Advisory Group of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, as well as advising other parts of the Government and National Academy of Sciences Task Forces.

At Yale he is a Fellow of Silliman College and a member of the Elizabethan Club. Before joining the Yale faculty, Professor Bracken was on the senior staff of the Hudson Institute for ten years, where he led the management consulting arm of the Institute. Bracken grew up in Philadelphia, and he enjoys golf, dude ranching, and ham radio.

Selected Books
Strategic Foresight: A Practical Guide to Scenarios and Alternative Futures in Business, forthcoming 

Managing Strategic Surprise: Lessons from Risk Assessment and Risk Management (with I. Bremmer and D. Gordon, ed.), Cambridge University Press, 2008

Fire in the East, The Rise of Asian Military Power and the Second Nuclear Age, HarperCollins, 1999

Selected Articles
"Managing to Fail, Why Strategy is Disjointed," The American Interest, Fall, 2007

"Financial Warfare" Orbis, Fall 2007

"Net Assessment: A Practical Guide" Parameters, Spring 2006

"Business War Gaming" Scenario & Strategy Planning, 2001

Education
PhD Yale University, 1982
BS Columbia University, 1971