John J. Hamre

President & CEO
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Washington, DC

John Hamre, ICAS Liberty Foundation Distinguished Fellow and ICAS Liberty Award Reciprient, was elected president and CEO of CSIS in January 2000. Before joining CSIS, he served as the 26th U.S. deputy secretary of defense. Prior to holding that post, John was the under secretary of defense (comptroller) from 1993 to 1997. As comptroller, Dr. Hamre was the principal assistant to the secretary of defense for the preparation, presentation, and execution of the defense budget and management improvement programs. In 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed him to serve as chairman of the Defense Policy Board, and John served in that capacity for four secretaries of defense.

Before serving in the Department of Defense, he worked for 10 years as a professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. During that time, John was primarily responsible for the oversight and evaluation of procurement, research, and development programs, defense budget issues, and relations with the Senate Appropriations Committee. From 1978 to 1984, he served in the Congressional Budget Office, where John became its deputy assistant director for national security and international affairs. In that position, he oversaw analysis and other support for committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. John received his Ph.D., with distinction, in 1978 from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., where his studies focused on international politics and economics and U.S. foreign policy. In 1972, he received his B.A., with high distinction, from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, emphasizing political science and economics. The following year John studied as a Rockefeller fellow at the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Links for John J. Hamre
2017 Liberty Award Dinner
The US-ROK Alliance and North Korea's Nukes
2016 ICAS Fall Symposium
Remarks in Honor of Dr. Chong Moon Lee
2010 ICAS Annual Liberty Award Dinner


This page last updated December 25, 2017 jdb