New America Announces Appointment of Peter W. Singer as Strategist and Senior Fellow

WASHINGTON, DC— New America is pleased to announce the appointment of leading political and international relations scholar Peter W. Singer as Strategist and Senior Fellow. Dr. Singer will join New America’s Future of War project in September, as well as advise on organizational strategy and opportunities.

Dr. Singer is considered one of the world's leading experts on changes in 21st century warfare. He has been named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers, by the Smithsonian Institution-National Portrait Gallery as one of the 100 “leading innovators in the nation,” and by Defense News as one of the 100 most influential people on defense issues.

“Peter Singer is a broad thinker, a fluid writer, and a policy entrepreneur with an amazing track record of discovering and elucidating the next important topics and questions,” said New America president Anne-Marie Slaughter. “His range is remarkable, from contractors to drones to child soldiers to cybersecurity. He brings not only wide expertise and extraordinary networks to New America, but also a strategist’s eye to help us figure out what tomorrow’s big ideas will be. I am thrilled that he has agreed to join us.”

Singer is the author of multiple award-winning and best-selling books: Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, which was named best book of the year by the American Political Science Association; Children at War, which was recognized by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book of the Year award; Wired for War: the Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, described as “awesome” by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show and Financial Times book of the year, and, most recently, Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know, which has been described by the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, James Stavridis, as “the most approachable and readable book ever written on the cyber world.” The book has been added to the US Navy and US Army professional reading lists and featured at venues like the Microsoft CEO Summit and South by Southwest festival.

Peter Bergen, Director of New America’s International Security Program, says that Dr. Singer will play a leading role in the institution’s national security work. “Peter Singer has been at the forefront of thinking and writing deeply about the new world of warfare in the 21st century, from private contractors, to drones, and to cyber attacks. He is a stellar addition to the New America community.”

In addition to his work as a researcher and scholar, Dr. Singer has consulted for the US Military, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the FBI, and served as coordinator of the defense policy task force on President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. He was named by the President to the US Military’s Transformation Advisory Group. He has also advised a number of entertainment industry projects, including for Warner Brothers, Dreamworks, Universal, HBO, Discovery, History Channel, and the video game series Call of Duty, the best-selling entertainment project in history.

“I am delighted to be joining New America and its focus on new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.” Singer said.

Singer joins New America from The Brookings Institution, where he was the founding Director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence and the youngest senior fellow in the Brookings Institution’s history. He received his Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University, and a BA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. His full bio and publications are available at www.pwsinger.com.