James Lindsay

James M. Lindsay is Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a leading authority on the American foreign policymaking process and the domestic politics of American foreign policy. Before joining the Council, Dr. Lindsay was deputy director and senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. From 1987 to 1999, he was a professor of political science at the University of Iowa, where he was an award-winning instructor. In 1996-1997, he was director for global issues and multilateral affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. His responsibilities included UN reform, State Department reorganization, and funding for international affairs. He has also served as a consultant to the United States Commission on National Security/21st Century (Hart-Rudman Commission) and as a staff expert for the United States Institute of Peace’s congressionally mandated Task Force on the United Nations. Dr. Lindsay has authored, co-authored, or edited more than fifteen books and fifty journal articles and book chapters on various aspects of American foreign policy and international relations. His book with Ivo H. Daalder, America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy, was awarded the 2003 Lionel Gelber Award, named a finalist for the Arthur S. Ross Book Award, and selected as a top book of 2003 by The Economist. His other books include Agenda for the Nation (with Henry J. Aaron and Pietro S. Nivola), which was named an “Outstanding Academic Book of 2004” by Choice Magazine; Defending America: The Case for Limited National Missile Defense (with Michael E. O’Hanlon); Congress and the Politics of U.S. Foreign Policy; and Congress and Nuclear Weapons. He has also contributed articles to the op-ed pages of many major newspapers, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.Lindsay holds an A.B. in Economics and Political Science (highest distinction, highest honors) from the University of Michigan and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Yale University. He has been a fellow at the Center for International Affairs and the Center for Science and International Affairs, both at Harvard University. He is a recipient of the Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs and an International Affairs Fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.