Expert Bio

The Hon. Christopher Ford is a professor with Missouri State University's School of Defense and Strategic Studies.  In prior government service, he was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation from 2018 until early 2021, for the last 15 months of that time also performing the duties of the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security. Before that, Dr. Ford served in 2017 as Senior Director for WMD and Counterproliferation at the National Security Council.  

Over 1997-2016, Dr. Ford served on five U.S. Senate committees, as U.S. Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation, as a Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, as a think tank scholar, and as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.  He is the author of the books The Mind of Empire: China's History and Modern Foreign Relations (2010), China Looks at the West: Identity, Global Ambitions, and the Future of Sino-American Relations (2015), and The Admirals' Advantage: U.S Navy Operational Intelligence in World War II and the Cold War (2005).