Peter E. Harrell advises U.S. and international companies on national security law, geopolitical risks, and regulatory and policy matters. 

PETER E. HARRELL is an attorney and strategist advising companies, investors, and corporate boards on U.S. national security, legal, and geopolitical matters. A leading expert on U.S. economic statecraft, Harrell advises on sanctions, U.S. trade law and policy, export controls, geopolitics, and other national security matters. 

From January 2021 through 2022, Harrell served at the White House as Senior Director for International Economics, jointly appointed to the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. In that role, Harrell co-led President Biden’s E.O. 14017 supply chain resilience agenda, including development of the U.S. strategy to strengthen the semiconductor ecosystem and to promote resilient supply chains across a range of critical products. Harrell also played a leading role in the White House’s work on international digital, 5G, and telecommunications policy, including leading U.S. negotiations with the European Union on the U.S.-E.U. Data Privacy Framework and policies to address Chinese data security risks. He served as the White House representative to the CFIUS Committee and coordinated U.S. government work on sanctions and export controls, including sanctions on Russia in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Immediately prior to joining the White House, Harrell served on the presidential transition team.

In addition to his private practice, Harrell currently serves as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a non-partisan public policy research organization in Washington, D.C. Harrell has testified before multiple congressional committees and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. His essays and op-eds have appeared in publications including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Politico, and Lawfare, among other outlets.

Before joining the White House in 2021, Harrell served as an attorney in private practice and as an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He also taught several trade and national security law classes at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Harrell previously served for six years at the U.S. State Department, as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counter Threat Finance and Sanctions and on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff. While at the State Department he was instrumental in developing U.S. policy on sanctions and the Department’s economic statecraft agenda.

Earlier in his career, Harrell worked on President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and was a reporter for Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C. Harrell is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University and holds a JD from the Yale Law School.