Biography of Mitchell Reiss

In addition to his responsibilities as Director for Policy Planning, Dr. Reiss serves as the President's Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, with the rank of Ambassador, responsible for leading the U.S. role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process.

Prior to his appointment, Dr. Reiss was Dean of International Affairs, Director of the Reves Center for International Studies, Professor of Law at the Marshall-Wythe Law School, and Professor of Government in the Department of Government at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.

Prior to his service at William and Mary, Dr. Reiss helped establish KEDO (the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization), a multinational organization created to address weapons proliferation concerns in North Korea. His responsibilities there included serving as Chief Negotiator and as General Counsel. His government service includes positions in the National Security Council at the White House, and as a Consultant to the U.S. Arms Control & Disarmament Agency, the State Department, the Congressional Research Service, the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories. He has also served on the Council on Foreign Relations; Ford Foundation; and the Cambridge Institute for Applied Research as well as the Board of Directors for the Lawyers Alliance for World Security. Dr. Reiss has also been a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and worked as an attorney at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Reiss has testified before Congress on U.S. foreign policy issues, appeared on national and international radio and television programs, and delivered talks before academic, military, and civilian audiences in East Asia, the former Soviet Union, Europe, South Asia, and the United States.

Dr. Reiss is the author of Bridled Ambition: Why Countries Constrain Their Nuclear Capabilities and Without the Bomb: The Politics of Nuclear Non-proliferation. He is also co-editor and author of Nuclear Proliferation after the Cold War. Published articles in The Washington Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, Arms Control Today, The Wilson Quarterly, and the Congressional Record. He has contributed to nine other volumes and written over 50 articles on international security and arms control issues.

Dr. Reiss holds a B.A. from Williams College, an M.A.L.D. from Tufts University, a Ph.D. from Oxford University, and a J.D. from Columbia University.