James Clad is a Senior Advisor to Sea-Change Partners and is the former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia Pacific Security Affairs from 2007-09. He also has served as Senior Research Fellow at the NESA Center, Senior Counselor and Director for Middle Eastern affairs at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and as Senior Counselor at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Prior to 2002, he was Professor of South and Southeast Asian Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and, concurrently, Director for Asia-Pacific Energy at Cambridge Energy Research Associates. Trained as a lawyer in New Zealand, Prof. Clad’s career concentrated on Asian risk issues and cross-border energy projects, broadening after 2002 to include the Middle East.
In earlier years, he held positions at the Far Eastern Economic Review; at St. Antony’s College, Oxford; the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. During the 1980s, he had diplomatic postings with the New Zealand foreign ministry. His 1991 book, Business, Money and Power in Southeast Asia critiqued highly leveraged Asian capitalism while a later book, After the Crusade, delivered a realist critique of US foreign policy during the 1990s. His more recent publications include book chapters analyzing Sino-Indian relations, Chinese influence in Asia, US-India strategic convergence, and the rise in border and boundary disputes in the 21st century.
Prof. Clad received the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Public Service Award in 2009.