Christopher J. Wehri

Military Fellow, U.S. Army

Profile picture

Expert Bio

Colonel Christopher J. Wehri, U.S. Army, is a senior army strategist, Functional Area 59, and has worked at all echelons of the defense enterprise. He entered the army as an armor/cavalry officer in 1999, and has served in the continental United States, Asia, Europe, and Korea, and has three combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Colonel Wehri most recently served in the Pentagon on the Joint Staff as the deputy division chief for the China-Taiwan-Mongolia Division, Deputy Directorate for Politico-Military Affairs (Asia), Directorate for Strategy, Plans, and Policy, from 2020 to 2022. He has also served as the deputy assistant chief of staff, G-5, Strategy, Plans, and Policy, Eighth Army, at Camp Humphreys in the Republic of Korea, from June 2019 to July 2020. From June 2015 to June 2019, Colonel Wehri served as the chief of plans and then assistant chief of staff, G-5, Strategy, Plans, and Concepts, II Marine Expeditionary Force, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. From July 2013 to June 2015, he was an operations officer and then executive officer for two different Stryker Cavalry Squadrons at Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Washington.

Following graduation from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the School of Advanced Military Studies, Colonel Wehri served in Kabul, Afghanistan, from June 2012 to July 2013 as the deputy chief of plans for the Combined Security Transition Command and NATO Training Mission. From 2008 to 2010, Colonel Wehri served as the aide-de-camp to the deputy commander of NATO’s Allied Land Component Command, Heidelberg, Germany. From 2000 to 2008, Colonel Wehri served at Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood), Texas, in the 1st Squadron 7th Cavalry “Garryowen,” as a tank platoon, scout platoon, support platoon, and troop executive officer; an assistant operations officer; a cavalry troop commander; and a headquarters troop commander. With two deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he served as a cavalry troop commander in support of the Joint Special Operations Command, a cavalry troop commander operating from Taji, and a headquarters troop commander.

Colonel Wehri is an Army War College Fellow graduate from Columbia University in New York City, and has earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Kansas, a master’s degree in military arts and sciences from the School of Advanced Military Studies, and a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Lehigh University. A native of Van Wert, Ohio, he lived in several locations across the United States and Europe during his formative years.

Top Stories on CFR

 

Sudan

More than a year into the civil war in Sudan, over nine million people have been displaced, exacerbating an already devastating humanitarian crisis.

Iran

The contest to replace Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash last month, is dominated by conservatives who have provided few signals of any major course change in the country’s regional and security policies.