Amy Smithson

Expertise: Chemical and biological weapons proliferation, threat reduction mechanisms (e.g., international treaties, export controls, cooperative threat reduction programs), defense, and domestic preparedness.

Amy Smithson joined CSIS in September 2003. She specializes in in-depth field research on issues related to chemical and biological weapons proliferation, threat reduction mechanisms, defense, and domestic preparedness. The author of a wide range of pertinent studies, she has addressed such topics as the reduction of U.S. and Russian weapons capabilities, the status of international treaties outlawing those weapons, the utility of export controls, and unconventional terrorism and U.S. preparedness. She has testified before Congress and is frequently consulted by the electronic and print media. Before joining CSIS, she worked at the Henry L. Stimson Center, where in January 1993 she founded the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project to serve as an information clearinghouse, watchdog, and problem solver on chemical and biological weapons issues. Earlier at the Stimson Center, she elaborated various proposals for the use of cooperative aerial inspections, coedited Open Skies, Arms Control, and Cooperative Security (St. Martin's, 1992), and coauthored a study on the suitability of the U.S. government's structure for addressing arms control issues in the post-Cold War era. Previously, she worked at the Pacific-Sierra Research Corporation, where she concentrated on strategies and tactics to monitor nuclear weapons accords, and at the Center for Naval Analyses. She holds a doctorate in political science from George Washington University, a master's in international relations from Georgetown University, and two bachelor's degrees in political science and Russian from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.