National Security Expert James B. Steinberg Named to Direct Brookings Foreign Policy Studies Program

James B. Steinberg, who has served in a number of senior foreign policy and national security positions inside and outside of government, has been named vice president and director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.

Steinberg will join Brookings on September 1st from the Markle Foundation, where he is currently Senior Advisor, focusing on the international dimensions of Information Technology, including governance and the use of IT for developing nations. His most recent government service included a four-year stint as Deputy National Security Advisor to President Clinton, following several senior positions at the State Department, including Director of the Policy Planning Staff.

As the new vice president and director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at Brookings, Steinberg replaces Richard N. Haass, who recently stepped down after being appointed Ambassador at Large and Policy Planning Staff Director at State by President Bush.

“Jim Steinberg has superior credentials to run the Foreign Policy Studies Program at Brookings,” said Michael H. Armacost, president of the Institution. “He combines intellectual acuity and a practitioner’s feel for the issues, and he is well known in the foreign policy community here and abroad. He will be a fitting successor to Richard Haass and will build further on the solid foundation that Richard established.”

Before joining the State Department in 1993, Steinberg worked at two leading foreign policy analysis institutions, as Senior Analyst in the International Policy Department at RAND and Senior Fellow on U.S. Strategic Policy at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London. He also served as Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s national security and arms control adviser on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Steinberg is the author of and contributor to many books on foreign policy and national security topics, as well as domestic policy, including An Ever Closer Union: European Integration and Its Implications for the Future of U.S.-European Relations, published by RAND.

Steinberg received his B.A. from Harvard in 1973 and a J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1978. He is a member of the D.C. Bar and served as law clerk to Judge David L. Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.