Center for a New American Security

Senior Fellow and Director of the Program on Technology and U.S. National Security

Dr. Irving Lachow is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Program on Technology and U.S. National Security at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Prior to joining CNAS, Dr. Lachow was a Principal Cyber Security Engineer at the MITRE Corporation where he led and contributed to multiple projects in the area of cyber security for several organizations, including Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense Chief Information Office and the Department of Homeland Security. 

Dr. Lachow also served on the MITRE Corporation’s internal cyber strategy team in support of the company’s senior vice president for cyber. Prior to joining MITRE, Dr. Lachow was a professor at the National Defense University’s (NDU) iCollege where he developed and taught in numerous courses focused on cyber issues.  In addition, from 2004-2006 Dr. Lachow served as Director of the iCollege’s Advanced Management Program: a 14-week residential seminar that prepares approximately 50 senior managers a year from government and industry to lead organizations in the information age. 

Prior to working at NDU, Dr. Lachow was a senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton where he was part of the Strategy, Policy, and Planning Team within Booz Allen’s Defense Information Technology Group.  Dr. Lachow led several projects for both defense and civilian agencies.  Earlier in his career, Dr. Lachow worked as a policy analyst for the RAND Corporation where he contributed to projects on a variety of topics, including communications systems, weapons of mass destruction, missile proliferation and acquisition.  Dr. Lachow also served as defense policy fellow in the Office of Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Advanced Systems & Concepts) and worked in sales and business development at a startup. 

Dr. Lachow has authored or co-authored more than 20 publications, including books, articles and reports.   He has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the State Department, the Kennedy School of Government and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  Dr. Lachow received his Ph.D. in Engineering & Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.  He earned an A.B. in Political Science and a B.S. in Physics from Stanford University.