J. Stephen Morrison joined CSIS in early 2000. He directs the CSIS Africa Program, the CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS (begun in 2001), and most recently codirected a CSIS Task Force on nontraditional security assistance. In his role as director of the Africa Program, he has conducted studies on the United States’ rising energy stakes in Africa, counterterrorism, the stand-up of the U.S. Africa Command, and implications for U.S. foreign policy. In 2005–2006, he was codirector of the Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force on Africa. Immediately prior to that, he was executive secretary of the Africa Policy Advisory Panel, commissioned by the U.S. Congress and overseen by then–Secretary of State Colin Powell. From 2005 to the present, he has directed multiphase work on China’s expansive engagement in Africa. His work on HIV/AIDS and related global health issues has involved multiple missions to China, Russia, India, Vietnam, and Africa and, most recently, a series of focused studies on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

Dr. Morrison writes widely, testifies often before Congress, and is a frequent commentator in major media on U.S. foreign policy, Africa, foreign assistance, and global public health. From 1996 through early 2000, he served on the secretary of state’s policy planning staff, where he was responsible for African affairs and global foreign assistance issues. From 1993 to 1995, he conceptualized and launched the Office of Transition Initiatives at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which operates in countries emerging from protracted internal conflict and misrule. From 1992 until mid-1993, he was the U.S. democracy and governance adviser in Ethiopia and Eritrea. In the period 1987 to 1991, he was senior staff member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa. Dr. Morrison holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin and is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale College. He has been an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies since 1994 and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.