Expertise Iran, North Korea, Nuclear Weapons Policy, US-Russia
Paul Dean is vice president of NTI’s Global Nuclear Policy Program. In this role, he leads the organization’s efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, reduce the risk of nuclear use, and ultimately end the existential threat of nuclear war.
Before joining NTI in 2025, Dean most recently served as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability. He served concurrently, by presidential designation, as the U.S. commissioner to the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Consultative Commission, the implementation body for the New START Treaty.
Dean was a career member of the U.S. Senior Executive Service where, over the course of his career at the U.S. Department of State, he handled complex, multi-stakeholder negotiations involving arms control, nonproliferation, international criminal justice, counterterrorism, international arbitration, and economic sanctions.
From 2018–2021, he was legal counselor at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, where he represented the United States before international legal tribunals and managed U.S. relations with the International Criminal Court. He previously led the U.S. Treaty Office, the Office of Nonproliferation and Arms Control, and the Office of Management. From 2009–2010, he was the U.S. delegation’s legal adviser for negotiation of the New START Treaty with Russia and later worked as the lead executive branch lawyer for the treaty’s ratification.
Dean won the Burton Award for Public Service in the Government in 2017 and the Presidential Rank Award in 2016. He was a Service to America Medal finalist for National Security and International Affairs in 2011.
He has a B.A. in Greek and Latin from Florida State, where he graduated first in his class. He received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, where he served as an articles editor on the Texas Law Review. Prior to joining the State Department in 2003, he clerked for a federal judge in Texas and practiced law at Covington & Burling in Washington. He is proficient (at varying levels) in Spanish, French, German, Latin, and Ancient Greek.