Walter Russell Mead is a prominent American academic, foreign policy analyst, and columnist known for his influential 'four schools' framework of American foreign policy. He currently serves as the Alexander Hamilton Professor of Strategy and Statecraft at the University of Florida's Hamilton Center and as the Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship at the Hudson Institute. Mead is also the 'Global View' columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a long-time book reviewer for Foreign Affairs. He co-founded the think tank New America in 1999. Throughout his career, Mead has held high-level positions at several major think tanks and academic institutions, including a thirteen-year tenure as the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (1997–2010). He is the author of several acclaimed books, including 'Special Providence' (2001), which won the Lionel Gelber Award, and 'The Arc of a Covenant' (2022), an exhaustive study of the U.S.-Israel relationship. His work often explores the intersection of religion, culture, and grand strategy, particularly within the Anglosphere.