Press Release
CAMBRIDGE, MA – Dr. James N. Miller, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, has joined Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs as a senior fellow. Miller will lead a project on preventing war among the great powers, which will develop recommendations to deal with changing dynamics of crisis management and escalation control that may arise from the deployment of increasingly advanced military capabilities, including in space and cyberspace.
“From Ukraine and the South China Sea to cyberspace, identifying potential crises between great powers and finding ways to prevent them before they start is one of the Belfer Center’s highest priorities,” said Director Graham Allison. “We are grateful that Jim Miller, one of America’s most seasoned and respected practitioners of national defense strategy, is coming back to the Center where he was once a young postdoc to lead a study of the future of great power conflict.”
“I am extremely pleased to join the Belfer Center,” Miller said, “and grateful to work with such a talented team on the future of great power crisis and conflict. After doing my graduate work here years ago, it’s like returning home.”
As Under Secretary from May 2012 to January 2014, Miller advised Secretaries Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel on strategy, policy, and operations, and served as the department’s deputy for National Security Council policy-making and crisis management. Miller served previously as Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under Secretary Robert Gates, guiding reviews of nuclear policy and missile defense, and leading national defense strategies for space and cyberspace. He was awarded the Department of Defense’s highest civilian award, the Medal for Distinguished Public Service, four times.
Miller served previously in government as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and as senior staff for the House Armed Services Committee. He also served as Senior Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security, Senior Vice President at Hicks and Associates, Inc., and assistant professor at Duke University. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Miller is President of Adaptive Strategies, LLC. He serves on the Defense Science Board, the Atlantic Council’s Board of Directors, and the Board of Advisors for the Center for a New American Security. Miller received a B.A. degree with honors in economics from Stanford University, and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School.
Contact: Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs sharon_wilke@hks.harvard.edu; 617-495-9858.