Christopher Ford

The Hon. Christopher Ford is a non-resident senior associate with the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and professor of international relations and strategic studies at Missouri State University’s School of Defense and Strategic Studies. From 2021 to 2024, Dr. Ford was a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and from 2021 to 2023, he served in various capacities at the MITRE Corporation, most recently as a MITRE fellow and the founding director of MITRE’s Center for Strategic Competition. He previously served as U.S. assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation (2018–2021), for 15 months also exercising the authorities of the under secretary for arms control and international security, and before that as special assistant to the president and senior director for weapons of mass destruction and counterproliferation at the U.S. National Security Council (2017). A Rhodes Scholar with degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and Yale, he has also been U.S. special representative for nuclear nonproliferation, a principal deputy assistant secretary of state, a staffer on five different U.S. Senate committees, a think tank scholar, and a U.S. Navy intelligence officer. He is the author of three books—China Looks at the West: Identity, Global Ambitions, and the Future of Sino-American Relations (2015), The Mind of Empire: China’s History and Modern Foreign Relations (2010), and The Admirals’ Advantage: U.S. Navy Operational Intelligence in World War II and the Cold War (2005)—as well as a great many articles and monographs. Dr. Ford’s website can be found at https://www.newparadigmsforum.com.