Keith Payne is President and co-founder of the National Institute for Public Policy, a nonprofit research center located in Fairfax, Virginia. At National Institute, he directs and participates in studies on U.S. strategic policy and force posture issues, arms control, BMD, and Russian foreign policy. Dr. Payne also is Head of the Graduate Department of Defense and Strategic Studies, Missouri State University (Washington Campus), and was awarded the Vicennial Medal for his years of teaching at Georgetown University.

On leave from National Institute in 2002 and 2003, Dr. Payne served in the Department of Defense as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Forces Policy. He received the Distinguished Public Service Medal from Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and the Forces Policy office Dr. Payne led received a Joint Meritorious Unit Award. In this position, Dr. Payne was the head of U.S. delegation in numerous allied consultations and in "Working Group Two" negotiations on BMD cooperation with the Russian Federation.

Dr. Payne is the editor-in-chief of Comparative Strategy: An International Journal, Chairman of the Strategic Command's Senior Advisory Group Policy Panel, co-chair of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, and a member of the State Department's International Security Advisory Board. He has served as a participant or leader of numerous governmental and private studies, including White House studies of U.S.-Russian cooperation, Defense Department studies of missile defense, arms control, and proliferation, and as co-chairman of the Department of Defense's Deterrence Concepts Advisory Group. He also has served as a consultant to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and participated in the 1998 "Rumsfeld Study" of missile proliferation.

Dr. Payne testifies frequently before Congressional Committees, and has lectured on defense and foreign policy issues at numerous colleges and universities in North America, Europe, and Asia. He is the author, co-author, or editor of over ninety published articles and sixteen books and monographs. His forthcoming book is entitled, The Great American Gamble: Deterrence Theory and Practice from the Cold War to the Twenty-First Century (National Institute Press®, July 2008).

Dr Payne's articles have appeared in major U.S., European and Japanese professional journals, including, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Orbis, Europäische Sicherheit, Policy Review, Strategic Review, Washington Quarterly, Jane's Intelligence Review, Militare Spectator, Air University Review, Comparative Strategy, Air Force Magazine, Issues In Science and Technology, Military Review, Parameters, Harper's, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today.

Dr. Payne received an A.B. (honors) in political science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1976, studied in Heidelberg, Germany, and in 1981 received a Ph.D. (with distinction) in international relations from the University of Southern California.

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