James B. Steinberg

Dean, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

James Steinberg is Dean of the Maxwell School, Syracuse University and University Professor of Social Science, International Affairs and Law. Prior to becoming Dean on July 1, 2011, he served as Deputy Secretary of State.

Mr. Steinberg received his B.A. from Harvard in 1973 and J.D. from Yale Law School in 1978. He was minority counsel on the U.S. Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee (1983-1985) and Senator Edward Kennedy’s principal aide for the Senate Armed Services Committee (1985-1987). During the Clinton Administration, Mr. Steinberg served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Analysis in the Bureau of Intelligence
and Research (1993-1994) and as Director of the State Department’s policy planning staff (1994-1996). Then he served as Deputy National Security Advisor from 1996 to 2000. During that period he also served as the President’s Personal Representative to the 1998 and 1999 G-8 summits. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Steinberg was Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he supervised a wide-ranging research program on U.S. foreign policy. From 2005-2008 Steinberg was Dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Hillary Clinton appointed Steinberg Deputy Secretary of State on December 23, 2008, as the principal Deputy to Secretary herself. In July, 2011, he resigned as Deputy Secretary of State and assumed
his new position, Dean of the Maxwell School, Syracuse University.

Mr. Steinberg is the author of and contributor to many books and articles on foreign policy and national security topics, including Protecting the Homeland 2006/2007 and An Ever Closer Union: European Integration and Its Implications for the Future of U.S.-European Relations. His most recent book is Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power (2008) with Kurt Campbell.

His wife, Sherburne Abbott, is Vice president for Sustainability Initiatives and University Professor of Sustainability Science and Policy at Syracuse University.