Elbridge Colby

Expertise

• U.S. nuclear weapons policy
• Deterrence
• WMD proliferation
• Arms control
• Intelligence policy and reform

Elbridge Colby is principal analyst and division lead for Global Strategic Affairs in CNA’s Strategic Initiatives Group, where he focuses on strategic, deterrence, proliferation, intelligence policy, and related issues.

Recent Work: Strategic stability with Russia and China; future strategy for the U.S. Navy; Middle East contingencies; consultant to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Global Security Directorate; the U.S. Strategic Command; the National Intelligence Council, and other government bodies.

Previous Positions: From 2009-2010 Colby served as policy advisor to the Secretary of Defense’s Representative for the follow-on to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, serving both on the delegation in Geneva and then as a Department of Defense point man for the treaty ratification effort. He previously served as an expert advisor to the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission, as special assistant to the Chief of Staff in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as a staff member on the President’s WMD Commission, and with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and the State Department. He has also been an adjunct staff member with the RAND Corporation and has served as a consultant to the U.S. Nuclear Command and Control System Federal Advisory Committee.

Education: B.A., Harvard College, History, magna cum laude; J.D., Yale Law School

Publications of Interest:

• In the Eyes of the Experts: Analysis and Comments on America’s Strategic Posture (Taylor A. Bolz, Ed.), U.S. Institute of Peace, 2009. Chapters on the U.S. nuclear force, U.S. alliances, deterring WMD terrorism, and ways to address the challenge of a nuclear Iran.
• “Requirements for Deterrence: Two Challenging Scenarios,” STRATEGIC INSIGHTS 8 NO. 4 (Sept. 2009).
• “Expanded Deterrence,” POLICY REVIEW 149 (June/July 2008).
• “Making Intelligence Smart,” POLICY REVIEW 144 (August/Sept. 2007).
• “Restoring Deterrence,” ORBIS 51 No. 2 (Summer 2007).
• “Maintaining the Triad: U.S. Bomber Force Needs a New Nuclear Cruise Missile,” Armed Forces Journal, December 2010 (with T. Moore).

Recent Talks and Presentations:

• “The Future of U.S. Nuclear Weapons: New START and the NPR,” Columbia University, October 1, 2010.
• ”The Future of Deterrence,” Hoover Institution, Stanford Univ., February 16, 2010.
• “Expanding Deterrence Against Catastrophic Terrorism,” CSIS PONI Conference, August 6, 2009.
• “Scenarios for NATO’s Deterrent Posture,” NATO/DTRA Conference on NATO and Nuclear Deterrence in Vilnius, Lithuania, May 11-12, 2009.
• “Deterring a Nuclear Iran,” IDA/DTRA Conference on Extended Nuclear Deterrence in the Middle East, January 23, 2009.