Professor, Kennedy School of Government

Harvard University

 

Ashton B. Carter is Chair of the International and Global Affairs faculty at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He is also Co-Director (with former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry) of the Preventive Defense Project, a research collaboration of Harvard and Stanford Universities. Previously, Dr. Carter has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy during President Clinton's first term. 

 

A longtime member of the Defense Science Board and the Defense Policy Board, the principal advisory bodies to the Secretary of Defense, Carter also advises the U.S. government as a member of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's International Security Advisory Board, co-chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Policy Advisory Group, a consultant to the Defense Science Board, a member of the National Missile Defense White Team, and a member of the National Academcy of Sciences Committee on International Security and Arms Control. In 1997, Carter co-chaired the Catastrophic Terrorism Study Group with Former CIA Director John M. Deutch. From 1998 to 2000, he was deputy to Defense Secretary Perry. In 2001-2002, he served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism and advised on the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
 
In addition to his public service, Carter is currently a senior partner at Global Technology Partners. He is a member of the board of trustees of the MITRE Corporation, and of the advisory boards of MIT's Lincoln Laboratories and the Draper Laboratory. He is a consultant to Goldman, Sachs and Mitretek Systems on international affairs and technology matters, and speaks frequently to business and policy audiences. Carter is also a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Physical Society, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. In addition, he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
 
Carter received bachelors degrees in physics and in medieval history from Yale University, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. He received his doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. In addition to authoring numerous articles, scientific publications, government studies and Congressional testimonies, Dr. Carter co-edited and co-authored 11 books, including Keeping the Edge: Managing Defense for the Future (2001), Preventive Defense: A New Strategy for America (1997), Cooperative Denuclearization: From Pledges to Deeds (1993), A New Concept of Cooperative Security (1992), Beyond Spinoff: Military and Commercial Technologies in a Changing World (1992), Soviet Nuclear Fission: Control of the Nuclear Arsenal in a Disintegrating Soviet Union (1991), Managing Nuclear Operations (1987), Ballistic Missile Defense (1984), and Directed Energy Missile Defense in Space (1984). Carter was twice awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award given by the Department. For his contribution to intelligence, he was awarded the Defense Intelligence Medal. In 1987, Carter was named one of Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the United States Jaycees. He received the American Physical Society's Forum Award for his contributions to physics and public policy.