Dr. Christopher A. Ford

Biography

The Hon. Christopher Ford teaches International Relations and Strategic Studies in the DSS program, and is also a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and founder and Principal of the consultancy Two Ravens Policy & Strategy LLC.

Before joining Missouri State University, he worked as a MITRE Fellow at the MITRE Corporation, where he was founding Director of the Center for Strategic Competition. From 2018 until 2021, following his unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Dr. Ford served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, also performing the duties of the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security from October 2019. Before that, he served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for WMD and Counterproliferation at the U.S. National Security Council.

Dr. Ford has also served on the staffs of the U.S. Senate’s Committees on Foreign Relations, Banking, Appropriations, Governmental Affairs, and Intelligence, as well as serving as staff director of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In other prior government service, he has also been Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, U.S. Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation, and (from 1994-2011), an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. A summa cum laude Harvard graduate with a doctorate from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and a law degree from Yale, Dr. Ford is the author of three books and many other publications, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chatham House, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Details

Education

• DPhil, International Relations (as a Rhodes Scholar), Oxford University
• JD, Yale Law School
• BA, Government/International Relations, summa cum laude, Harvard University

Professional experience

• 2023 to present: Professor, Missouri State University
• 2021 to present: Visiting Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University
• 2021-22: MITRE Fellow and founding Director, Center for Strategic Competition, the MITRE Corporation
• 2019-21: Performing the duties of the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
• 2018-21: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation
• 2017: Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for WMD and Counterproliferation, U.S. National Security Council
• 2015-16: Chief Legislative Counsel, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
• 2015: Chief Investigative Counsel, U.S. Senate Banking Committee
• 2013-15: Republican Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee
• 2008-13: Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
• 2006-08: U.S. Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation, U.S. Department of State
• 2003-06: Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State
• 2001-03: Republican Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
• 2000-01: Republican Staff Director, U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
• 1999-2000: Chief Investigative Counsel, U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee
• 1998-99: National Security Advisor to U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME)
• 1997: Investigative Counsel, U.S. Senate Special Investigation
• 1996: Assistant Counsel, Intelligence Oversight Board, The White House
• 1995-97: Associate, Shea & Gardner (law firm)
• 1994-2011: U.S. Navy Reserve, intelligence officer; honorable discharge as Lieutenant Commander