Seth G. Jones is President of the Defense and Security Department and Harold Brown Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He focuses on defense strategy, military operations, the defense industrial base, and irregular warfare. He leads a bipartisan team of over 150 resident and non-resident staff that conduct policy-relevant research and analysis on defense and national security issues. Dr. Jones currently serves as a Commissioner on the Congressionally established Afghanistan War Commission. He also teaches at the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the US Naval Postgraduate School.

Prior to CSIS, Dr. Jones was director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation. Before that, he served in several positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and US Special Operations Command. He served as representative for the commander, US Special Operations Command, to the assistant secretary of defense for special operations. He was also a plans officer and adviser to the commanding general, US Special Operations Forces, in Afghanistan (Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command–Afghanistan). Dr. Jones served on a congressionally mandated panel that reviewed the FBI’s implementation of counterterrorism recommendations contained in the 9/11 Commission Report.

He is author of The American Edge: The Military Tech Nexus and the Sources of Great Power Dominance (Oxford, 2025), Three Dangerous Men: Russia, China, Iran, and the Rise of Irregular Warfare (W.W. Norton, 2021), A Covert Action: Reagan, the CIA, and the Cold War Struggle in Poland (W.W. Norton, 2018), Waging Insurgent Warfare: Lessons from the Vietcong to the Islamic State (Oxford University Press, 2016), Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of al Qa’ida since 9/11 (W.W. Norton, 2012), and In the Graveyard of Empires: America’s War in Afghanistan (W.W. Norton, 2009). Dr. Jones has published articles in a range of journals, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and International Security, and news outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College and received his MA and PhD from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Jones joined the Spirit of America Advisory Board in 2025.