Roger Kelly Smith

Roger Kelly Smith holds advanced degrees in international politics from the London School of Economics (MSc) and Georgetown University (Ph.D.); in addition, he earned a law degree from the University of California at Los Angeles. He taught international politics and American defense policy at the University of Massachusetts, while serving as the executive director of the Aspen Strategy Group, a nonpartisan Aspen Institute think tank examining national security matters. Concurrent with his Aspen appointment, he was a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Center for International Affairs. Before entering public service with the California Court of Appeal, he was in private practice as a civil litigator with several large international law firms. He, his wife, and their dog divide their time between downtown Los Angeles and a mountain cottage in Lake Arrowhead, California.