LEWIS M. STERN
Dr. Lewis M. Stern is Avascent International's Senior Advisor for Southeast Asian affairs. Dr. Stern served ten years in the Central Intelligence Agency, including a tour in Bangkok, Thailand, attached to the Indochina Operations Group, and twenty years for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he was responsible for Southeast Asian security and defense policy. During 2008-20010 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University (NDU). Dr. Stern retired from federal government service on 31 October. He is now an INSS Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at NDU, where he will continue work on the Vietnam program. During the Fall 2010 term Dr. Stern began an appointment as adjunct faculty member in the Asian Studies Department of Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, VA., teaching in the Adult Degree Program.
From January 2006 to August 2008, Dr. Stern was the Director for Southeast Asia in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs. Prior to that position, Dr. Stern served as Director for Indochina, Thailand and Burma and then Director for Southeast Asia in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He has also served as Visiting Research Fellow (2001-2002) at the School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, during which time he wrote his fourth book on contemporary Vietnam, Defense Relations Between The United States And Vietnam: The Process Of Normalization, 1977-2003, (North Carolina, McFarland, 2005).
Dr. Stern remains a prolific writer on Southeast Asian issues. His article on the Vietnamese Defense Ministry's recent White Paper will be published as an NDU Strategic Perspective monograph in December 2010. His recent publications for NDU’s journal, Strategic Forum, include: “Diverging Roads: 21st Century U.S.-Thai Defense Relations,” (June 2009); “U.S.-Vietnamese Defense Relations: Deepening Ties, Adding Strategic Relevance,” (July 2009); “Burma in Strategic Perspective: Renewing Discussion of Options,” (October 2009); and “U.S. – Cambodian Defense Relations: Defining New Possibilities,” (November 2009).