James A. Siebens is a Fellow with Stimson Center’s Strategic Foresight Hub, where he leads the Defense Strategy and Planning project. He is also affiliated with Stimson’s Russia program, and Cyber program. Siebens is the editor of China’s Use of Armed Coercion: To Win Without Fighting (Routledge 2024), a study on China’s use of military and paramilitary forces for purposes of coercion. He is also co-editor of Military Coercion and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Use of Force Short of War (Routledge 2020), a book on U.S. deterrence and coercive diplomacy since the end of the Cold War; and co-editor of Advancing Accountability on Cyberspace: Models, Mechanisms, and Multistakeholder Approaches (Stimson Center 2024), an edited volume on the potential application of governance models and accountability mechanisms to improve deterrence of malign behavior in cyberspace. His research focuses on grand strategy, deterrence and coercion, and gray zone conflict.
Siebens previously served as a Research Associate and Special Assistant to the President and CEO at the Stimson Center. Prior to joining Stimson, he was a Data Analyst at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland, where he contributed to a DoD-sponsored study on gray zone conflict. Siebens is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Non-resident Fellow with the Irregular Warfare Initiative. He holds an M.A. in International Affairs with a concentration in Global Security from American University’s School of International Service.
