Expert Bio

Dr. Brad Roberts has served as director of the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 2015.  From 2009 to 2013, he was deputy assistant secretary of defense for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy.  In this role, he served as policy director of the Obama administration’s Nuclear Posture Review and Ballistic Missile Defense Review and led their implementation.  Prior to entering government service, Dr. Roberts was a research fellow at the Institute for Defense Analyses and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, editor of The Washington Quarterly, and an adjunct professor at George Washington University.  Between leaving the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 2013 and assuming his current responsibilities, Dr. Roberts was a consulting professor at Stanford University and William Perry Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC).  While at CISAC, he authored a book entitled The Case for US Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century, which won the Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title in 2016.  Dr. Roberts is also a member of the Strategic Advisory Group advising the Commander of U.S. Strategic Command.  

Education: 

• B.A., International Relations, Stanford University
• M.Sc., International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science
• Ph.D., International Relations, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Select recent publications (available at:  https://cgsr.llnl.gov/research/director-pubs):

• Between Tragedy and Catastrophe: Taking Intra-War Deterrence Seriously (CGSR forthcoming)
• Sustaining the Nuclear Peace: On the Urgent Need for a New Strategy for Stability, Report of the Senior Study Group on Strategic Stability convened by the United States Institute for Peace, 2023-2025 (pending) 
• Editor and contributor, Counterforce in U.S. Nuclear Deterrence Strategy (CGSR 2025)
• “The Next Chapter in US Nuclear Policy,” Washington Quarterly (2023) 
• China’s Emergence as a Second Nuclear Peer: Implications for US Nuclear Deterrence Strategy, CGSR study group report (2022)
• “NATO’s Nuclear Deterrent: Fit for Purpose?” (journal article) 
• “Moral Complexity in Nuclear Policymaking” in Roberts, ed., Morality and Nuclear Weapons: Practitioner Perspectives 
• Theories of Victory, Red and Blue Livermore Paper No. 7 (2022)