Biography of James Steinberg

 Before joining the School, he was the vice president and director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. (2001-2005), where he supervised a wide-ranging research program on U.S. foreign policy.

From December 1996 to August 2000, he served as deputy national security advisor to President Bill Clinton. During that period he also served as the president's personal representative ("sherpa") to the 1998 and 1999 G-8 summits. Prior to becoming deputy national security advisor, he served as chief of staff of the U.S. State Department and director of the State Department's policy planning staff (1994-1996), and as deputy assistant secretary for analysis in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (1993-1994).

Steinberg has also been a senior analyst at RAND in Santa Monica, California (1989-1993), and a senior fellow for U.S. Strategic Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London (1985-1987). He served as Senator Edward Kennedy's principal aide for the Senate Armed Services Committee (1983-1985); minority counsel, U.S. Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee (1981-1983); special assistant to the U.S. Assistant Attorney General (Civil Division) (1979-1980); law clerk to Judge David L. Bazelon, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1978-1979); and special assistant to the assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1977).

Steinberg received his B.A. from Harvard in 1973 and J.D. from Yale Law School in 1978. He is a member of the D.C. Bar. He is a member of the board of directors of the Pacific Council on International Policy, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and the President's Council on International Activities of Yale University. He is also a member of the editorial board of The Washington Quarterly.

Steinberg has written numerous books and chapters on foreign policy and national security topics, including Protecting the Homeland 2006/2007 and An Ever Closer Union: European Integration and Its Implications for the Future of U.S.-European Relations. His publications on domestic policy include "Urban America: Policy Choices for Los Angeles and the Nation," and "Were You Counted?—Civil Rights and the 1990 Census" in One Nation Indivisible: The Civil Rights Challenges for the 1990s, published by the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights in 1989.