Jim Baker

Jim Baker is an American strategist and senior fellow for strategic competition at the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served as director of the Office of Net Assessment at the U.S. Department of Defense, producing long-range assessments that informed decisions by the secretary of defense, the joint chiefs of staff and other cabinet officers. Over 17 years in senior strategy roles, he connected decades-ahead trends to present-day choices. He was trained as an engineer and has also overseen major defense technology programs, working where technical depth meets statecraft.

Baker’s work at the Council on Foreign Relations examines how institutional thought leadership should be transformed in the age of artificial intelligence and U.S.-China competition, and he explores the strategic and military implications of frontier technologies in defense innovation between the U.S., its allies and its adversaries. Those topics are deeply aligned with the council’s mission to inform U.S. engagement with the world through policy-relevant analysis and informed public discussion.