Michael Schmitt

Michael Schmitt is Professor of International Law at the University of Reading. Additionally, he is the G. Norman Lieber Distinguished Scholar at the Lieber Institute of the United States Military Academy (West Point) and the Charles H. Stockton Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the US Naval War College. Professor Schmitt is a Senior Fellow at the NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, Senior Research Associate at Hebrew University, Honorary Professor at Exeter University’s Security and Strategy Institute, Affiliate at Harvard's Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, Executive Editor of International Law Studies, and General Editor of the Lieber Studies series (OUP).

Previously, he was Professor of International Law at the University of Exeter and Durham University, Dean of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany, and General Editor of International Law Studies and the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law. 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. He has delivered many named and annual lectures, including the inaugural Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies Annual Lecture, the Ruth Steinkraus-Cohen Annual Law Lecture, James Crawford Biennial Lecture at Adelaide Law School, Sir Ninian Stephen Lecture at Melbourne University, and the Waldemar Solf Lecture at the US Army's Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School.

Professor Schmitt serves on many boards of institutions, learned and professional societies, and publications dealing with international law in numerous countries. The author of over 200 scholarly publications, Michael is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, and a member of the US State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Law. Also 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 United States Naval War College's Research Scholar of the year.