Peter E. Harrell is a Visiting Scholar at Georgetown’s Institute of International Economic Law. Harrell has had a diverse career across both the public and private sectors and currently serves as an attorney advising companies and investors on international legal, regulatory, and geopolitical risks, including economic sanctions and trade compliance matters. As a Visiting Scholar, Harrell’s research agenda focuses on the future of U.S. trade law and policy and the global trading order.

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 led White House initiatives to secure U.S. supply chains for critical products, worked on international digital and telecommunications policy and negotiations, served as the White House representative to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States; and led policy processes to impose sanctions and export controls on Russia in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

From 2015 to early 2021, Harrell was an attorney in private practice and served as Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security.  Harrell’s articles and essays have appeared in publications including the Fordham International Law Journal, the Journal of International Economic Law, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Politico, and Lawfare, among other outlets.  Harrell has also testified in front of multiple congressional committees.  He is also the host of a podcast, Security Economics. 

Between 2009 and 2014, Harrell served at the U.S. State Department, first on the Policy Planning Staff and subsequently in the Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. Earlier in his career, Harrell served on President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly. 

In addition to serving as a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of International Economic Law, Harrell is also a nonresident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  

Harrell is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University and holds a JD from the Yale Law School.