Jim Mitre

Jim Mitre is the director of the International Security and Defense Policy Program, part of the RAND National Security Research Division, and a senior international/defense researcher at the RAND Corporation.

Mitre previously served as a senior advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Defense charged with establishing the Office of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer. He also spent time in the private sector as the chief strategy officer at Govini, an early-stage national security technology company, and as an adjunct research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses.

Mitre spent a decade in the Defense Department’s strategic planning offices where he had responsibility for defense strategy, strategic analysis, and force development. He served as the principal director, and twice acting deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Strategy & Force Development in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and as the executive director of the 2018 National Defense Strategy. Mitre oversaw development of the Department’s defense planning guidance and defense planning scenarios, directed assessments of the performance of future forces, and led development of the Department’s strategic approach to defense posture in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and Middle East. Mitre was a Presidential Management Fellow in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and served in Kabul, Afghanistan and Nairobi, Kenya. Prior to joining the Defense Department, Mitre co-founded a private counterterrorism research organization, the SITE Institute.

Mitre holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan Business School.