Mr. Schiffer is senior advisor and counselor on the Democratic Staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From 2009 to 2012, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs. Before joining the Department of Defense he was a program officer at the Stanley Foundation, responsible for the Foundation`s Asia programs as well as a range of other U.S. national and global security issues and in 2004-2005 was a Council on Foreign Relations Hitachi International Affairs Fellow in Japan. From 1995 to 2004, he worked on the staff of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), including as her senior national security adviser and legislative director. Prior to that, he was director of international security programs at New York University`s Center for War, Peace, and the News Media. Mr. Schiffer received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and New York University.