Gordon Adams

Note: This is the biography page of a former staff member, affiliate, etc., and may not be current.

Gordon Adams was a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center and is a professor in the U.S. Foreign Policy program at the School of International Service, American University.

He was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and, for seven years, a professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University and director of the school’s Security Policy Studies program. For five years he was associate Director for National Security and International Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget, the senior White House budget official for national security. He has been an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

Adams’ most recent book (with Cindy Williams) is “Buying National Security: How America Plans and Pays for Its Global Role and Security at Home” (Routledge 2010). He has published books, monographs and articles on defense and national security policy, the defense policy process and national security budgets. He appears regularly in the media and has testified numerous times before the Congress on defense spending and national security issues. He writes regularly for the National Journal, Foreign Policy and The Will and the Wallet.

Selected Publications

Buying National Security: How America Plans and Pays for Its Global Role and Safety at Home (Routledge Press, 2010) – with Cindy Williams

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “Afghanistan and Pakistan: The Graveyard for U.S. Foreign Policy Planning?” October 2009.

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “Strategic Planning Comes to the State Department” July 2009.

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “Budgeting for national security” June 2009.

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “Evaluating the Obama adminstration’s national security budget and planning process” April 2009.

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “Obama’s test: Bringing order to the national security policy process” January 2009

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “Stablizing US stablization and reconstruction efforts abroad” October 2008.

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “Establishing the Next President’s National Security Agenda: Part 1” June 2008.

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “Getting U.S. Foreign Assistance Right” May 2008.

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “The True Cost of U.S. Defense Spending” April 2008.

American Security Project, “Iraq: Lessons Learned,” February 2008.

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “New Funds for Foreign Aid,” February 2008.

Strengthening Statecraft and Security: Reforming U.S. Planning and Resource Allocation (MIT Security Studies Program, 2008) – with Cindy Williams

Transforming European Militaries: Coalition Operations and the Technology Gap (with Guy Ben-Ari), London: Routledge Press, 2006.

Foreign Service Journal, “Fear vs. Hope: America and Global Security,” June 2005.

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