Matthew C. Waxman

Adjunct Senior Fellow for Law and Foreign Policy

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The President’s Inbox

The Laws of War, With Matthew Waxman

November 3, 2023
An Israeli armored personnel carrier near the Gaza-Israel border on October 31, 2023.

Expert Bio

Matthew C. Waxman is adjunct senior fellow for law and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also the Liviu Librescu Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where he directs the National Security Law program, and he previously served as co-chair of the Cybersecurity Center at Columbia University’s Data Science Institute. 

Waxman previously served at the U.S. Department of State as principal deputy director of policy planning. His prior government appointments included deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, director for contingency planning and international justice at the National Security Council, and executive assistant to the national security advisor. He is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, and studied international relations as a Fulbright Scholar in the United Kingdom. After law school, he served as law clerk to Supreme Court justice David H. Souter and U.S. Court of Appeals judge Joel M. Flaum.

affiliations

  • Columbia Law School/Columbia University, Liviu Librescu Professor of Law
  • Israel America Academic Exchange, International Academic Board Member
  • Kibu, Inc., advisor
  • Skydio, advisor
  • WestExec Advisors, senior advisor
  • West Point Lieber Institute for Law & Land Warfare, senior fellow

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