Bio & Experience
Leon Aron, who was born in Moscow and came to the United States as a refugee in 1978, is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He studies Russian domestic and foreign policy, US-Russia relations, and the economic, social, and cultural aspects of Russia’s post-Soviet evolution.
From 2014 to 2020, Dr. Aron was a governor of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the operations of several international broadcasting outlets, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. From 1990 to 2004, he was a panelist on Looking from America (Gliadya iz Ameriki), a weekly Voice of America Russian-language radio and television show. Dr. Aron has taught at Georgetown University and received the US Institute of Peace’s Peace Fellowship. In 2011-12 he was Co-chairman of the Russia Advisory Group of Governor Mitt Romney’s presidential election campaign.
Dr. Aron is also a prolific writer and editor. His latest book, Riding the Tiger: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the Uses of War (AEI Press, 2023), chronicles, through the use of hundreds of Russian sources, how Vladimir Putin has used militarized patriotism to transform Russian society and maintain his grip on power. The book has been praised by Russia experts and described as “one of the most important stories of our time” and “a fantastic read.”
Dr. Aron’s other books include Roads to the Temple: Memory, Truth, Ideas, and Ideals in the Making of the Russian Revolution, 1987–1991 (Yale University Press, 2012), in which he details and analyzes the intellectual and moral revolution that precipitated the end of the Soviet Union; Russia’s Revolution: Essays 1989–2006 (AEI Press, 2007); and the first in-depth biography of Boris Yeltsin, Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life (St. Martin’s Press, 2000).
His edited volumes include To Have and to Hold: Putin’s Quest for Control in the Former Soviet Empire (AEI, 2018); and Putin’s Russia: How It Rose, How It Is Maintained, and How It Might End (AEI, 2015), which includes essays by nine leading Russian scholars.
A regular contributor to newspapers, magazines, and popular news websites, Dr. Aron has published essays and articles on Russian foreign policy, politics, and literature in the Atlantic, CNN, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the New York Review of Books, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, among other outlets. From 1999 to 2014, he wrote AEI’s Russian Outlook, a quarterly essay on the economic, political, social, and cultural aspects of Russia’s post-Soviet transition.
In addition to his writings, Dr. Aron is a frequent guest on television and radio. His interviews include PBS NewsHour, CNN, C-SPAN, CBS News’ 60 Minutes, and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.
Dr. Aron has a PhD in political sociology and an MA in media sociology from Columbia University. He also has a BA from Moscow State Pedagogical University.
Experience
- American Enterprise Institute: Senior Fellow, 1992–present
- Broadcasting Board of Governors: Governor, 2014–20
- Voice of America: Weekly Contributor, “Looking from America” (Gliadya iz Ameriki), 1990–2004
- Georgetown University: Adjunct Professor, 1994–96
- US Institute of Peace: Peace Fellow, 1992–1993
- Heritage Foundation: Senior Policy Analyst, 1987–92
- Newspaper Advertising Bureau: Senior Project Director, 1984–87
- Benton & Bowles: Assistant Project Director, 1983–84
Education
PhD, political sociology, MA, media sociology, Columbia University
BA, Moscow State Pedagogical Institute