Brian Frydenborg has a cross-disciplinary background of two decades in humanitarian aid/relief, international development, international affairs, government, public policy, politics, writing, journalism, research, and consulting. He grew up in in a suburb of New York City called Weston, Connecticut, and attended Canterbury School in New Milford, CT. As an undergraduate at Washington and Lee University, he engaged in a rigorous double major program of Politics and History. His main abroad experience in college was in Japan, but he also had more minor experiences in Cuba and Europe. Upon graduation, he volunteered for several political campaigns in Boston, including the 2004 Democratic National Convention, where a chance meeting with then-Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., and his Chief-of-Staff eventually led to an internship in the Senator's Washington, DC, office in 2006.

After doing substantive work in the United States Senate while just an intern, and after some time in the private sector, he began his graduate studies at George Mason University's School of Public Policy. While also working part-time, he completed his Master of Science (M.S.) in Peace Operations, with his program defining a peace operation “as an intervention into a complex contingency [due to conflict and/or natural disaster] for the purpose of maintaining or restoring peace.” The completion of his degree included studying abroad in Liberia—evaluating the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)—and also included studying abroad in Israel and the West Bank, Palestine, examining the conflict there.

During 2014-2019, he was based in Amman, Jordan, freelancing mainly as a writer and a consultant, a career in which he recently has had well about 200 articles published by a wide range of different outlets, including Newsweek, The Jerusalem Post, Modern War Institute at West Point, The London School of Economics and Politics Middle East Centre, Real Clear Defense, Real Clear History, The Jordan Times, MSN, Venture Magazine, Al Bawaba, Business Insider, Small Wars Journal, Iranian Student News Agency, War Is Boring, Mic, Movie Pilot, Russian International Affairs Council, Global Risk Insights, Medium, Hidden Remote, and others, and has been cited in Harvard Law & Policy Review, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, USA Today, Istituto Affari Internazionali, the Foundation for European Progressive Studies, among others. He also had an academic book chapter published: “The Roman Republic in Greece: Lessons for Modern Peace/Stability Operations.” Brian runs his own news website, Real Context News https://realcontextnews.com, specializing in deep-dives and generous context. He can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter (where you can follow him at @bfry1981).