Skip to content

Jonathan Davis

Jonathan Davis
Fall 2002 Fellow
Henry L. Stimson Center
Jonathan Davis
Fall 2002 Fellow
Henry L. Stimson Center

Major Fellowship Activities: Davis worked on a project entitled “Foreign High-Tech R & D in China,” which focuses on the transfer of technology from American and European companies to China and its implications for national security and proliferation.  He provided background research, collected data, and wrote some of the sections of the project report.  He helped present the project findings to a group of eight experts on US-China relations, US- China trade, export controls, and R&D, and discussed their impressions of the project’s data and conclusions.  He co-wrote “Risking a Repeat: Export Controls and Post-Conflict Iraq,” on the need to consider export controls for trade with a post-Saddam Iraqi regime, which is included in New Angles on Iraq: View of the Stimson Center’s Experts, and co-wrote “Export Controls and Post-Conflict Reality, Again,” an op-ed that appeared in Defense News (November 4, 2002).  Additionally, he wrote an in-office briefing on the status of the Export Administration Act in Congress and the prospects for export control reform efforts in the coming year.  He co-wrote an opinion piece on the Stimson Center’s homepage, titled, “Doing It Right: Post- Iraq Export Control Reforms”.  He was the point-person for, and helped prepare the summary, of a conference titled “Improving Multilateral Export Controls and Technology Access for the Developing World,” held on December 12, 2002 at the Carnegie Endowment’s Conference Center. This conference addressed reform of the multilateral export control regimes and the impact of these regimes on development in the third world.  As part of Stimson’s China Tech Transfer project, he prepared an assessment of China’s compliance to its WTO accession agreement after researching China’s commitments and the major evaluations of China’s performance to date. The brief will be used as a resource for an upcoming monograph for the tech transfer project.  He conducted an assessment of the 108th Congressional leadership with an eye on the prospects for passing an Export Administration Act (EAA) in 2003/2004.  He has attended several conferences and meetings, including the Carnegie International Non-Proliferation Conference; a meeting of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Export Controls and Economic Sanctions; the October 21 China Forum (prior to Jiang Zemin’s visit with President Bush in Crawford, Texas) at the National Press Club; a meeting with a delegation from the Shanghai Institute of International Studies at the Henry L. Stimson Center on Iraq, Sino-US cooperation, and North Korea’s nuclear program admission; “The Chinese Communist Party: The End of the Line?” at the Woodrow Wilson Center; “Taiwan and US Policy: Toward Stability or Crisis” on October 9 at the Russell Senate Office Building; and “The U.S. and Korea: Endless Entanglement or Crossroads for Change?” at the CATO Institute.  Additionally, he met with Dr. Jean- Francois Garbuzan from the Foundation for Strategic Research (Paris) to discuss U.S. export control reform, multilateral export controls, and the post-9/11 use of export controls to combat the terrorist threat.   He helped organize the Stimson Center Fellowship in China event given by the Center’s most recent fellow, Alan Tonelson, on “A Necessary Evil?: Current Chinese Views of America’s Military Role in East Asia” (February 20).  He served as Rapporteur for the 34th United Nations Issues Conference on “Global Disarmament Regimes: A Future or a Failure?” at the Arden House Conference Center in Harriman, New York from February 28 to March 2.  He has been working on condensing and re-writing his notes from the conference into an official rapporteur’s report which will be published by the Stanley Foundation.  He attended a conference at the Woodrow Wilson Center on the sustainability of China’s economic boom, titled “Will the Bubble Burst?” (February 12).  He attended the CDI/PSR “US Nuclear Policy and Counterproliferation” conference on February 26 and wrote an in-house summary of the discussion and issues.  He designed two Stimson Center websites, one for the China Technology Transfer project and the second for the U.S. and Multilateral Export Controls project.  He is drafting a proposal for a new Stimson Center project on national security and intangible technology that would bring together government and industry representatives for a series of roundtable forums. He has been writing a piece on the future of the NPT in light of recent developments in Iraq, North Korea, and Iran.

Current Activities: Davis is an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser, Office of Nonproliferation and Arms Control at the U.S. State Department. He is the lead attorney on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; North Korea and Iran nuclear issues; issues relating to the International Atomic Energy Agency, including IAEA safeguards; security assurances and nuclear-weapon-free zones; fissile material cutoff issues; and plutonium disposition. He previously worked in the Office of Political-Military Affairs covering a range of issues regarding the use of force, war powers, and the laws of war. His portfolio covered a variety of law of war and use of force issues, including jus ad bellum and jus in bello issues arising in the context of U.S. and foreign operations; the application of these bodies of law to cyberspace and outer space; law of war issues arising in the context of resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, and other international organizations; counterterrorism operations; and other sensitive operational issues. In fall 2017, he will be co-teaching a course on International Law as an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law. He was previously an Associate in the New York office of the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He worked in the firm’s Dispute Resolution Group, which includes both litigation and arbitration practices. He focused primarily on international arbitration matters, particularly investor-state disputes, representing both sovereign States and investors, and participated in international arbitrations based in Paris and The Hague. He earned a master’s degree in International Relations from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs at Princeton University and a law degree from New York University in 2009. At NYU he won First Place at the 2007 National UCLA Moot Court Competition and was the Global Issues Chair of the International Law Society Board and Volunteers Chair of the Public Service Auction. At Princeton he focused mostly on security issues and conflict resolution, and received the John Parker Compton Memorial Fellowship, which provides full tuition plus stipend based on academic merit. In summer 2008 he worked as a Graduate Intern in the Political-Economic Section of the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In summer 2007 he worked as a summer associate for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in both New York and Hong Kong.  In summer 2006 he worked on human rights and legal aid in Monrovia, Liberia with the Foundation for International Dignity. He previously worked as a research analyst with the Center for International Trade and Security in their Washington, DC office, where he conducted research and analysis on nonproliferation export controls, and wrote reports for government departments and private foundations.