Dr. James Lewis, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Cyber Studies

James Lewis is a Senior Vice President at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Before joining CSIS, he was a member of the U.S. Foreign Service and Senior Executive Service, where he worked on a range of political–military issues and developed policy for satellites, encryption, and the internet. His diplomatic experience includes negotiations on military basing in Asia, the Cambodia Peace Process, and the Five-Power talks on arms transfers. Lewis led the U.S. delegation to the Wassenaar Arrangement Experts Group.  He was assigned to U.S. Southern Command for Just Cause, U.S. Central Command for Desert Shield, and the U.S. Central American Task Force.

 

Lewis has authored numerous publications, including “Assessing the Risk of Cyber Terror,” and “The Role of Offensive Cyber Operations in NATO’s Collective Defence.”  He was the Project Director for CSIS’s Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, whose report has been downloaded more than 65,000 times, and the Rapporteur for the 2010, 2013 and 2015 UN Group of Government Experts on Information Security. Lewis’s current research involves the internet and politics, surveillance and espionage, and the effect of military innovation on stability. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.