James Adams

Until recently, James served as senior adviser at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, where he helped set strategy to address challenges confronting the United States. His work focuses on competition in cyber, generative artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and biotechnology, as adversaries such as China, Russia, and Iran accelerate efforts to undermine U.S. democracy. He has spent the past 25 years working closely with the Department of Defense and multiple intelligence agencies, with a focus on cyber operations, terrorism, and information operations. He is a former member of the National Security Agency (NSA)’s advisory board and the founding chair of the Technology Advisory Panel of the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate. Before entering public service, James served as chief executive officer of United Press International, where he was brought on to reengineer the company. He was also the founder, chair, and chief executive officer of iDEFENSE, a cyberintelligence organization. Earlier in his career, James worked at the Sunday Times of London, where he served as national security correspondent, Washington bureau chief, and managing editor. James is the author of 18 bestselling fiction and nonfiction books focused on warfare and intelligence. The Next World War: Computers Are the Weapons and the Front Line Is Everywhere examines the complexities of information warfare. His other works include The Financing of Terror, Secret Armies, New Spies, Engines of War, and two biographies—Sellout, the story of Central Intelligence Agency spy Aldrich Ames, and Bull’s Eye, the story of Iraqi supergun maker Gerry Bull. His books have been published in more than 15 languages.