James N. Miller


James Northey Miller Jr. is a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He was the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 18, 2012 until January 8, 2014. As such, he provided advice to then Defense Secretaries Panetta and Hagel. He was born in Waterloo, Iowa. In 2000, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.

Early life and education

Miller earned his B.A. with honors in economics from Stanford; he earned his master's degree and his Ph.D., both in public policy, from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His 1989 Ph.D. thesis was Approaching Zero: An Evaluation of Radical Reductions in Superpower Nuclear Arsenals.

Career

He was senior professional staff member for the House Armed Services Committee, assistant professor at Duke University ; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Requirements, Plans, and Counterproliferation Policy ; and Senior Vice President and Vice President at Hicks and Associates, Inc..
He then served as Senior Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security, Miller served as Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy before he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy on May 25, 2012.
Miller is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is a four-time recipient of the Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the highest civilian award of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Resignation from Defense Science Board

On June 2, 2020, Miller resigned from the Defense Science Board in protest after police used pepper balls and smoke canisters to disperse protesters in the area surrounding Lafayette Park so that President Donald Trump, accompanied by U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, could attend a photo op at the St. John's Episcopal Church across from the White House. In an open resignation letter to Esper, Miller cited the oath of office that he had taken to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States," and wrote that Esper and Trump had violated the same oath, writing:
Miller also criticized Esper's statement urging state governors to "dominate the battlespace," writing: "I cannot believe that you see the United States as a 'battlespace,' or that you believe our citizens must be 'dominated.' Such language sends an extremely dangerous signal."