Jim Sciutto
Boards now have to price political risk into decisions they used to treat as commercial. Exposure to China, sanctions on Russia, supply routes through the Red Sea, and cyber operations from state actors are no longer separate files for a government affairs team. They land directly on the CFO, the general counsel, and the audit committee, and most leadership teams do not have a trusted source who is read in on what the U.S. national security community actually thinks is coming.
Jim Sciutto is CNN’s Chief National Security Analyst and the author of four books on great power conflict, helping boards and executive teams read the geopolitical environment that now shapes their commercial decisions.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Jim Sciutto
- Direct access to senior U.S. and allied national security officials. The reporting in The Return of Great Powers draws on named on-record interviews with cabinet-level figures, intelligence chiefs and frontline commanders that almost no other broadcaster can convene.
- A view from inside government, not only outside it. Two years as Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to China gives him a working understanding of how Washington and Beijing actually negotiate, not how the relationship looks from a studio.
- Authoritative on the specific files that hit balance sheets: U.S. China decoupling, Russia and Ukraine, Iran, North Korea, and state-sponsored cyber operations against Western companies.
- A New York Times bestselling author whose books are reviewed in Foreign Affairs, the Wall Street Journal and the Guardian, which means the analysis presented to a client audience has been pressure-tested in the foreign policy community first.
- Comfortable in both keynote and moderator roles, which suits closed sessions where a senior speaker is being interviewed in front of a leadership audience.
Biography highlights
- CNN Chief National Security Analyst; anchor of The Brief with Jim Sciutto on CNN International and CNN Max.
- Author of The Return of Great Powers (Dutton, 2024), The Madman Theory (2020), The Shadow War (2019) and Against Us.
- Former Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, U.S. Embassy Beijing, 2011 to 2013.
- Senior Fellow, Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs; member, Council on Foreign Relations.
- George Polk Award; two Emmy Awards for Iraq reporting; Edward R. Murrow Award; Merriman Smith Memorial Award; Overseas Press Club citation.
- Yale graduate in Chinese history; Fulbright Fellow, Hong Kong; previously ABC News senior foreign correspondent, reporting from more than 50 countries.
Biography
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the steady militarisation of the Taiwan Strait, and the open contest between Washington and Beijing have ended the assumptions most companies built their strategies on. Sciutto’s 2024 book The Return of Great Powers argues that the post Cold War order has already broken, and that boards and governments are still adjusting to a world in which great-power conflict is back as a default condition.
He is unusually well placed to make that argument. As CNN’s Chief National Security Analyst he covers the U.S. defence, intelligence and diplomatic agencies as a daily beat, and as anchor of The Brief he interviews the officials shaping policy in real time. The reporting behind his books has been reviewed in Foreign Affairs and the Wall Street Journal, and he sits as a Senior Fellow at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
His perspective is not only journalistic. From 2011 to 2013 he served as Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke in Beijing, working inside the embassy on national security and trade priorities during a formative period in the U.S. China relationship. That experience gives him a working understanding of how policy is actually made between the two capitals, which is the question most exposed companies are now trying to answer.
Earlier in his career he reported from more than 50 countries as ABC News’ senior foreign correspondent, covering Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Ukraine. His awards include the George Polk Award for undercover reporting inside Myanmar, two Emmys for Iraq coverage, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Merriman Smith Memorial Award for presidential coverage.
Key speaking topics
- Great power conflict and the post Cold War order
- U.S. China strategic competition
- Russia, Ukraine and European security
- Iran, North Korea and nuclear proliferation
- State-sponsored cyber operations and hybrid warfare
- U.S. foreign policy and the intelligence community
- Geopolitical risk for boards and investors
Ideal for
- Boards and audit committees pricing political and sanctions risk into capital decisions
- CEOs and CFOs of multinationals with material China, Russia or Middle East exposure
- General counsel, government affairs and corporate security leaders
- Investor and client conferences where geopolitics is the headline frame
Audience outcomes
- A clear read on where U.S. national security thinking sits on China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, sourced from named officials rather than commentary.
- A working map of which geopolitical files matter most for commercial decisions over the next 12 to 24 months.
- A sharper sense of how cyber, disinformation and sanctions operate as instruments of state power against Western companies.
- A direct conversation with one of the senior national security correspondents most trusted by the U.S. policy community, with time for board-level questions.
Talks
A senior official’s-eye view of the threat picture, drawing on Sciutto’s reporting access across the U.S. intelligence community.
Key takeaways:
- The current ranking of state and non-state threats facing the U.S. and its allies
- Where nuclear risk now sits in Iran, North Korea and the Russia Ukraine theatre
- What this means for companies with exposure in those regions
Based on the 2019 book, an account of how Moscow and Beijing operate against the U.S. through cyber, disinformation and grey-zone tactics.
Key takeaways:
- How state-sponsored cyber operations target Western companies, not only governments
- The pattern of disinformation campaigns and what they reveal about adversary intent
- What corporate security leaders should be doing differently
A board-level briefing built on the 2024 New York Times bestseller, arguing that the post Cold War order is over and great-power conflict is back as the default frame.
Key takeaways:
- Why the U.S. China relationship is structurally different from the one most strategies were written for
- How Russia’s war on Ukraine has reshaped European security and energy
- The questions boards should be asking their executive teams about exposure and resilience