Loch Kingsford Johnson is the Regents Professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia, as well as a Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor. He is the author of over 200 articles and essays; and the author or editor of thirty books on U.S. national security, including: Spy Watching: Intelligence Accountability in the United States (Oxford, 2018); National Security Intelligence, 2nd ed. (Polity, 2017); America and the Challenges of World Leadership (Oxford, 2014); and The Threat on the Horizon (Oxford, 2011); The Oxford Handbook of National Security Intelligence (Oxford, 2010); Seven Sins of America. Professor Johnson served as special assistant to the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1975-76); as a staff aide on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee (1976-77); as the first staff director of the Subcommittee on Intelligence Oversight, U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (1977-79); as a senior staff member on the Subcommittee on Trade and International Economic Policy, Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives (1980); and as special assistant to Chairman Les Aspin of the Aspin-Brown Commission on the Roles and Missions of Intelligence (1995-96).
Professor Johnson has served as secretary of the American Political Science Association and as president of the International Studies Association (ISA), South. He is the senior editor of the international journalIntelligence and National Security (London) and is on the editorial advisory board for other journals, including Foreign Policy Analysis. In 2008-09, he was named a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, and is now on the Phi Beta Kappa National Board for the Visiting Scholar Program. He has also been a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Yale University and at Oxford University. In 2012, the combined universities of the Southeastern Conference selected Professor Johnson as their Inaugural “SEC Professor of the Year” Award; and in 2014 the Intelligence Studies Section of the International Studies Association named him its “Distinguished Scholar.” At the University of Georgia, he was won the William A. Owens Award, the University’s highest research award in the social and behavioral sciences, and its Creative Research Award, as well as the Award for Excellence in Research and the Award for Excellence in Research (both bestowed by the School of Public and International Affairs).
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Professor Johnson received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Riverside. In post-doctoral activities, he was awarded an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship; has studied nuclear weapons policy at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and has conducted research on Congress as a Carl Albert Visiting Fellow at the University of Oklahoma. At the University of Georgia, he led the founding of the School of Public and International Affairs in 2001, as well as the UGA Memorial Service Garden in 2005. His leisure time is devoted to family activities, sports (Alpine skiing, running, golf), reading, chess, and civic involvement.
