Dr. Christopher A. Ford

Details

Education

• DPhil, International Relations, 1992, Oxford University 1992 (as Rhodes Scholar)
• JD, 1995, Yale Law School
• BA, Government/International Relations (summa cum laude), 1989, Harvard College

Teaching

• DSS 725 Instruments of State Power
• DSS 601 Nuclear Strategy and Arms Control

Professional experience

• Director of Missouri State University's School of Defense and Strategic Studies
• Tenured full professor with Missouri State University
• Founding editor-in-chief of Missouri State University’s journal Defense & Strategic Studies Online (DASSO)
• Visiting Fellow, Stanford University’s Hoover Institution (2021-24)
• MITRE Fellow and the founding Director of the Center for Strategic Competition, the MITRE Corporation (2021-23)
• U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation (2018-2021)
• Special Assistant to the President & Senior Director for WMD and Counterproliferation, U.S. National Security Council (2017)
• U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2015-16)
• U.S. Senate Banking Committee (2015)
• U..S. Senate Committee on Appropriations (2013-14)
• Hudson Institute, Senior Fellow (2008-13)
• U.S. Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation (2006-08)
• Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, (2003-06)
• U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee (2001-03)
• U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (2000-01)
• U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee (1997, 1999)
• U.S. Navy intelligence officer (1994-2011)
• Rhodes Scholar (1989-92)

Research and professional interests

Strategic competition, nuclear deterrence and nuclear weapons policy, Chinese history and strategic culture, arms control and nonproliferation, international relations theory

Awards and honors

Winner of Missouri State University's 2025 “Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award”