Spencer Boyer

Spencer P. Boyer is the Magro Family Distinguished Fellow in International Affairs at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. He recently completed nearly 3 years of service in the Biden Administration as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy where he was responsible for managing the day-to-day defense relationship between the United States and NATO, the European Union, and more than 40 countries in Europe. Boyer served in senior roles in both Obama administrations. From 2009 – 2011, he was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, where his portfolio included Western Europe, public diplomacy, and public affairs. From 2014 – 2017, he was the National Intelligence Officer for Europe in the National Intelligence Council—the center for long-range strategic thinking within the U.S. Intelligence Community. 

Boyer has been an adjunct professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a senior fellow or visiting scholar with numerous think tanks, including the Center for American Progress, the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Brookings Institution, and the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also served as the director of the Washington Office of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. Boyer began his career as an associate with the law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Washington, DC. Later, he worked in The Hague as a law clerk to the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, as a staff attorney at the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland, and as counsel at the International Court of Arbitration in France. He earned his bachelor’s in English literature from Wesleyan University, during which time he spent a semester in Cameroon with School for International Training. He received his Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law, where he specialized in public international law and the work of international organizations. He also earned a master’s degree in French studies, with a concentration in French politics, history, and economy from NYU. He lives in Maryland with his family.