M. Elaine Bunn

M. Elaine Bunn is a consultant on strategic issues with 40 years of experience in the U.S. government working on defense policy. She addresses international audiences on nuclear policy, extended deterrence, and missile defense. Her writings include articles and book chapters on deterrence, assurance of allies, strategic planning, nuclear policy, missile defense, arms control, and preemption. She frequently serves as a mentor for others, from university students to mid-career professionals, including through the Program for Emerging Leaders at the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction, the National Defense University, and the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She is a non-resident senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London and member of the Nuclear Deterrence External Advisory Board at Sandia National Laboratories. Bunn served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy (DASD/NMD) from 2013 to early 2017. Prior to being appointed DASD/NMD, Bunn was a distinguished research fellow in the Center for Strategic Research at National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies, where she headed a project on future strategic concepts. Before that, she was a senior executive in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), where she worked from 1980 to 2000 in international security policy, beginning as a presidential management intern. Bunn was a visiting fellow at the RAND Corporation from 1998 to 2000. She was involved with the 1994, 2001, and 2010 Nuclear Posture Reviews. She began her Washington career as an intern for Sen. Sam Nunn in 1974. Bunn, a graduate of the National War College, received an MA from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. She was a Fulbright scholar at the Université de Neuchâtel in Switzerland after graduating from the University of Georgia with a BA in international political communications.