P.W. Singer
Peter Warren Singer is Senior Fellow and Director of the 21st Century
Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. He is the youngest
scholar named Senior Fellow in Brookings's 90-year history. In 2005,
CNN named him to their "New Guard" List of the Next Generation of
Newsmakers. Singer has also been recognized by the Financial Times
as "Guru of the Week" for the thinker who most influenced
the world that week and by Slate Magazine for "Quote of the Day."
In his personal capacity, Singer served as coordinator of the Obama-08
campaign’s defense policy task force. In 2009, Singer was named by
Foreign Policy Magazine to the Top 100 Global Thinkers List, of the
people whose ideas most influenced the world that year.
Dr. Singer is considered one of the world's leading
experts on changes in 21st century warfare. He was named by the
President to Joint
Forces Command's Transformation Advisory Group. He has written
for the full range of major media and journals, including the Boston
Globe, L.A. Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs,
Current History, Survival, International Security, Parameters, Weltpolitik,
and the World Policy Journal. He has been quoted in every
major U.S. newspaper and news magazine and delivered talks at venues
ranging from the U.S. Congress to over 40 universities around the
world. He has provided commentary on military affairs for nearly
every major TV and radio outlet, including ABC-Nightline, Al
Jazeera, BBC, CBS-60 Minutes, CNN, FOX, NPR, and the NBC
Today Show. He is also a founder and organizer of the U.S.-Islamic
World Forum, a global conference that brings together leaders
from across the US and the Muslim world.
His first book Corporate
Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry
(Cornell University Press, 2003) pioneered the study of the new
industry of private companies providing military services for hire,
an issue that soon became important with the use and abuse of these
companies in Iraq. The book, originally planed for a 500 copy print
run, has sold over 40,000 copies, gone through 3 print runs and
a paperback version, as well as being translated into Japanese,
Korean, Urdu, Chinese, Turkish, and Italian. It was named best book
of the year by the American Political Science Association, among
the top five international affairs books of the year by the Gelber
Prize, and a “top ten summer read” by Businessweek.
It is now in the assigned texts at venues ranging from Yale Law
School to the Army War College. Singer continues to serve as a resource
on the private military issue to the U.S. Congress, U.S. Department
of Defense, CIA, and the European Union and he helped bring to light
the role of private contractors in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal
and the Halliburton contract controversies in Iraq. Singer’s
work was featured in the History Channel documentary “Soldiers
for Hire” and he served as a consultant on the topic for the
TV drama The West Wing.
Dr. Singer’s next book, Children
at War (Pantheon, 2005), explored the rise of another
new force in modern warfare, child soldier groups. Dr. Singer’s
“fascinating” (New York Post) and “landmark”
(Newsweek) work was the first book to comprehensively explore
the compelling and tragic rise of child soldier groups and was recognized
by the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book of the Year Award. His
commentary on the issue was featured in a variety of venues ranging
from NPR and Fox News to Defense News
and People magazine. Dr. Singer has served as a consultant
on the issue to the U.S. Marine Corps and Congress, and the recommendations
in his book resulted in changes in the UN peacekeeping training
program. An accompanying A&E/History Channel documentary,
"Child Warriors," won a 2008 CINE Golden Eagle Award for excellence
in the production of film, television, video and new media. Singer
also helped advise the Don Cheadle movie Traitor, as well
as the 24 TV series and DVD.
Dr. Singer’s most recent book, Wired
for War (Penguin, 2009), looks at the implications of robotics
and other new technologies for war, politics, ethics, and law in
the 21st century. Described as: “An exhaustively researched
book, enlivened by examples from popular culture" by the Associated
Press and “awesome” by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show,
Wired for War made the New York Times non-fiction bestseller
list in its first week of release. It was named a non-fiction Book of the Year by The Financial Times. It has already been featured
in the video game “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot,”
the CBS “Late Late Show,” as well as in over 75 presentations
at venues as diverse as all three US military academies, the US
Congress, the National Student Leadership Conference, and the royal
court of the United Arab Emirates. The book is also been made an
official reading with organizations that range from National Defense University, US Air Force, US Navy, to the Royal Australian Navy.
Prior to his current position, Dr. Singer was
the founding Director of the Project on U.S. Policy Towards the
Islamic World in the Saban Center at Brookings. He has also worked
for the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard
University, the Balkans Task Force in the U.S. Department of Defense,
and the International Peace Academy. Singer received his Ph.D. in
Government from Harvard University and a BA from the Woodrow Wilson
School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
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