George Friedman was born in Budapest in 1949. His family moved to the United States, and he grew up in New York City. He graduated from Cornell University with a PhD in political philosophy. He has written extensively on war, strategy, and philosophy, and is a bestselling author of many books including The Future of War (1997), The Next 100 Years (2009), Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe (2013), and his most recent book The Storm before the Calm: America’s Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond (2020). He is founder and chairman of Geopolitical Futures (www.geopoliticalfutures.com), a publication dedicated to charting the course of the international system. He lives in Austin, Texas.