Assistant Professor, Director of Washington DC Program

Jeffrey Fields is associate professor of the practice of international relations and founding director of the Dornsife Washington, DC Program. The Washington Program brings USC students to DC for a semester to study and complete an internship, provides public affairs programming on campus, and professional development activities for students interested in politics, international relations, and public policy.

Professor Fields’ research and teaching focus on U.S. foreign policy and national security strategy, transnational organized crime, technology and International relations, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Prior to coming to USC, Dr. Fields was a Presidential Management Fellow and served as a political-military analyst with the U.S. Department of Defense and as a foreign affairs officer with the U.S. State Department. At the State Department he helped advise the president’s special representative for nonproliferation. Dr. Fields has also been a research associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and a researcher the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

He is the recent recipient of grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Drawing on an effort he led at the State Department, Professor Fields created and directs the Intersect Project, which facilitates a dialogue between scholars of international relations and policymakers in Washington, DC. In that capacity he hosts a regular roundtable between scholars and practitioners at the State Department. Dr. Fields and his dog split their time between Los Angeles and Washington DC.