Professor; Director, East Asia Nonproliferation Project (EANP)
- Office
- 499 Van Buren Street, Rm. 229
- Tel
- (831) 647-6616
- jlewis@middlebury.edu
Dr. Jeffrey Lewis is the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at CNS. Before coming to CNS, he was the director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation. Prior to that, he was executive director of the Managing the Atom Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, executive director of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a desk officer in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.
At the Middlebury Institute, He teaches courses on arms control issues in Northeast Asia and Chinese nuclear policy. The work of his team was recently covered in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and VICE. He is the author of Minimum Means of Reprisal: China’s Search for Security in the Nuclear Age (MIT Press, 2007), and Paper Tigers: China’s Nuclear Posture (IISS, 2014). He is a regular columnist for Foreign Policy, and has published articles in Foreign Affairs, the Washington Post, and The New York Times. He is the founder of ArmsControlWonk.com, the leading blog and podcast on disarmament, arms control and nonproliferation.
Courses Taught
Courses offered in the past two years.
- Current term ●
- Upcoming term(s) ○
NPTG 8510 - Security&ArmsCntrl-N East Asia ●
This course will examine contemporary issues relating to nuclear arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation in Northeast Asia. Topics to be examined include China's strategic modernization, North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and US extended deterrence commitments to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Spring 2020 - MIIS, Spring 2021 - MIIS
NPTG 8518 - Open Sources Tools for NPTS ●
This course is an introduction to open source analysis used in the context of nonproliferation and terrorism studies. The instructors will give policy lectures as well as hands-on training in the lab. The course is designed as an overview of geospatial and data analysis techniques which are only just recently being applied to the nonproliferation and terrorism research fields. Students will study policy and intelligence analysis using deep web searching, ground and satellite imagery analysis, basic GIS, 3D modeling, crowd-sourcing, text mining, and network analysis.
Fall 2020 - MIIS, Spring 2021 - MIIS
MIIS 8516 / IGST 8516 - Security&ArmsCntrl-N East Asia
Spring 2021, MIIS courses in College Term
NPTG 8517 / IEPG 9517 / ITDG 9517 / DPPG 9517 - IntlCrisis NegotiationExercise
International Crisis Negotiation Exercise
This exercise will provide students with an opportunity to craft an acceptable and viable conflict termination solution for the nearly decade-long Syrian civil war. Participants from the Middlebury Institute and several other area educational institutions are divided into delegations representing the seven active belligerents -- the Syrian regime, Turkey, Russia, Iran, and the United States, as well as political/military factions representing Syrian/Arab opposition forces and the Kurdish populations within Syria. Under the mentorship of faculty and guest experts, students organize their delegations then plan, strategize, and negotiate while promoting national and ethnic interests in an attempt to forge a lasting resolution to the conflict. Under the guise of a UN-sponsored peace conference, students are afforded the opportunity to learn and apply skills in regional situation analysis, negotiation techniques, strategic thinking, leadership, planning, crisis management, decision-making, and team-building.
Spring 2020 - MIIS, MIIS Workshop
NPTG 8563 - Evolutn ofChineseNuclearPolicy
This course, on the evolution of Chinese nuclear policy, is divided into three parts. The first part outlines early Chinese attitudes to nuclear weapons, proliferation and disarmament, prior to and immediately following China’s nuclear test in 1964. The second part examines enduring concepts in Chinese nuclear policy, such as No First Use, and introduces students to important debates in China since the 1980s on nuclear deterrence. The third part focuses on contemporary issues and challenges that shape Chinese nuclear policy, from ballistic missile defense, to the South Asian nuclear tests in 1999, and the North Korean nuclear crisis. The nature of the US-China nuclear relationship will also be explored. The principal objective of the course is to give students a better understanding of China’s nuclear policy, both past and present. A secondary objective is to introduce to students key literature and sources, both in English and Chinese, on this issue.
Fall 2019 - MIIS
INTD 1219 - Nonproliferation Tools & Tech
Applying New Tools and Technologies to Today's Security challenges on the Korean Peninsula
In 2017, North Korea tested a missile capable of delivering a powerful thermonuclear weapon against cities throughout the United States. How do scholars study international security challenges like the spread of nuclear weapons? In this course, students will develop an open source intelligence toolkit applicable to a broad universe of international security challenges, with special focus on nuclear weapons and North Korea. No prior knowledge is assumed, and students outside political science are encouraged to participate. The tools covered, such as satellite imagery, have broad applicability beyond nonproliferation, to areas such as human trafficking, climate change, oceans policy, and counterterrorism.
WTR
Winter 2019
Areas of Interest
Dr. Jeffrey Lewis is interested in nonproliferation and arms control issues in Asia, the role of intelligence, and applying new tools to open source intelligence.
Programs
Research Centers
Academic Degrees
- PhD in Policy Studies (International Security and Economic Policy), University of Maryland
- BA in Philosophy and Political Science, Augustana College
Dr. Lewis has been teaching at the Institute since 2012.
Publications
Dr. Lewis is the author of Minimum Means of Reprisal: China’s Search for Security in the Nuclear Age (MIT Press, 2007) and publishes ArmsControlWonk.com, the leading blog on disarmament, arms control and nonproliferation.
