James Steinberg

Plenary Session 1 - "Back to History?" / Plenary Session 3 - "East Asian Power Shift"

Mr. Steinberg is Dean of the Maxwell School and University Professor of Social Science, International Affairs, and Law at Syracuse University. Prior to becoming Dean on July 1, 2011, he served as Deputy Secretary of State, serving as the principal Deputy to Secretary Clinton. In addition, Mr. Steinberg previously held positions as the Dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and vice president and director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. Prior to that he served in various government positions including: deputy national security advisor to President Clinton and the president’s personal representative to the 1998 and 1999 G-8 summits, director of the State Department’s policy planning staff, and deputy assistant secretary for analysis in the bureau of Intelligence and Research. Previously, he also served as Senator Edward Kennedy’s principal aide for the Senate Armed Services Committee and minority counsel in the U.S. Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. Mr. Steinberg has a forthcoming book “Strategic Reassurance and Strategic Resolve: US-China Relations in the 21st Century” with Michael O’Hanlon (Princeton University Press, winter 2014). He has also authored Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power (2008) with Kurt Campbell. Mr. Steinberg received his B.A. from Harvard and a J.D. from Yale Law School.