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Derek Mitchell

Visiting Distinguished Professor of the Practice

Headshot of a man with short graying hair, wearing rimless glasses, a light blue collared shirt, and a dark gray tweed jacket.
Email
dmitch26@nd.edu

Biography

Derek Mitchell is a visiting distinguished professor of the practice in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He is a senior advisor to the president and Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. Between 2018 and 2023, Ambassador Mitchell was president of the National Democratic Institute, a U.S.-based non-profit, non-government organization dedicated to supporting democratic development worldwide, where he oversaw and led more than 1,200+ personnel in over 50 offices worldwide.

An Asianist with nearly four decades of experience working in and on the region, from 2011-16, Ambassador Mitchell served as U.S. special envoy and then ambassador to Burma (Myanmar), the first in 22 years, during a historic period in the country’s nascent democratic transition. From 2009-11, Ambassador Mitchell oversaw the Obama Defense Department’s Asia policy as the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs and acting assistant secretary.

From 2001-2009, Ambassador Mitchell was senior fellow for Asia in CSIS’s International Security Program, where he founded the Center’s Southeast Asia Program. He has served as a senior advisor at the United States Institute of Peace, as well as a lecturer for the Stanford-in-Washington program. He is currently serving on the board of directors at the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security; as a patron of Hong Kong Watch (UK) and a practitioner associate at the Centre for Democratic Resilience at Oxford University (UK).

Ambassador Mitchell has authored numerous articles, policy reports, and opinion pieces on Asian affairs, and is the coauthor of three books on China. He is currently working on a book about his experience in Burma entitled “Myanmar Days: A Chronicle of Diplomacy and Democracy,” to be published by Columbia University Press.

Ambassador Mitchell received a master of arts in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia. He speaks Mandarin Chinese proficiently.

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