Michael Schmitt is Professor of Public International Law at Reading Law School (UK), the Francis Lieber Distinguished Scholar at the Lieber Institute of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and Visiting Professor at the University of Texas Law School. He was named professor emeritus by the United States Naval War College in 2019.  Professor Schmitt is a Senior Fellow at the NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, Senior Research Associate at Hebrew University, Affiliate at Harvard’s Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, and General Editor of the Lieber Studies series (OUP). Previously, he was Charles H. Stockton Professor and Chairman at the Naval War College’s Stockton Center for the Study of International Law, Professor of International Law at Durham University, and Dean of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany. He served 20 years in the United States Air Force as a judge advocate specializing in operational and international law.

Professor Schmitt has been an invited visiting scholar at Melbourne University, Australian National University, Yale Law School and Emory University, and has delivered the James Crawford Biennial Lecture at Adelaide Law School, Sir Ninian Stephen Lecture at Melbourne University, Hilaire McCoubrey Lecture at Hull University and the Waldemar Solf Lecture at the US Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School. He serves on many boards of institutions, learned and professional societies, and publications dealing with international law.  The author of over 160 scholarly publications, his academic degrees include a D.Litt (Durham University), JD (University of Texas), LL.M (Yale University), MA (Naval War College), and MA/BA (Texas State University). He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, and serves as a member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on International Law.  In 2017 he was awarded the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana by the President of Estonia for his work in promoting cyber defence and in 2018 was named the Naval War College’s Research Scholar of the year.

Michael Schmitt is also a Distinguished Scholar with the Strauss Center’s Integrated Cybersecurity Studies (ICS) program.