Stewart Baker

Stewart Baker is Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a partner at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C.

From 2005 to 2009, he was the first Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security. As assistant secretary, Mr. Baker oversaw Department-wide policy analysis, including cybersecurity policy, international affairs, strategic planning, and relationships with private sector, advisory committees, and law enforcement.

Mr. Baker’s law practice covers homeland security, international trade, cybersecurity, data protection and foreign investment regulation.

During 1994 and 1995, Mr. Baker served as General Counsel of the WMD Commission investigating intelligence failures prior to the Iraq war. From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Baker was General Counsel of the National Security Agency, where he led NSA and interagency efforts to reform commercial encryption and computer security law and policy. From 1979 to 1981, he helped start the Education Department and served as deputy General Counsel of that Department. (That’s two cabinet level start-ups, for those keeping track, and two is plenty for anyone.) He was also a law clerk to Hon. John Paul Stevens, U.S. Supreme Court, as well as to Hon. Frank M. Coffin, U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, and Hon. Shirley M. Hufstedler, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Mr. Baker has served on numerous boards and commissions. He testified before the September 11 commission on intelligence and law enforcement issues and has been a member of the President’s Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration, the Industry Trade Advisory Committee on telecommunications and electronic commerce, two Defense Science Board panels on information warfare defense and the Markle Task Force on Technology and Terrorism. He has also been an advisor to international organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.