Dr. Jim Walsh is an expert in international security and a Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Security Studies Program (SSP).

Dr. Walsh's research and writings focus on international security, and in particular, topics involving nuclear weapons and terrorism. Dr. Walsh has testified before the United States Senate on the issue of nuclear terrorism and on Iran’s nuclear program. He is one of a handful of Americans who has traveled to both Iran and North Korea for talks with officials about nuclear issues. The British newspaper, The Independent, named Dr. Walsh and his co-authors as having offered one of the 10 best and original ideas of 2008.

His comments and analysis have appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Times of London, the Financial Times, Associated Press, Reuters, Time magazine, US News and World Report, the Atlantic, the Economist, ABC news, CBS news, the Discovery Channel, MTV, and numerous other national and international media outlets. He acts as terrorism consultant for the NBC affiliate in Boston (WHDH, Ch 7), served as Iraq War analyst for WGBH (PBS, Boston), and regularly appears on Fox, CNN, NPR, and the BBC (over 500 appearances since 2001). His film credits include Testament (Paramount Pictures, 2004), Meltdown (FX channel, 2004), and Fortress Australia (Australia Broadcast Corporation, 2002).

Dr. Walsh’s recent publications include, “Egypt’s Nuclear Future: Proliferation or Restraint?” in Forecasting Proliferation, Stanford University Press, 2010 (forthcoming); “Sanctions Can’t Be the Centerpiece,” in Room for Debate, New York Times, September 25, 2009; “How to Deal with Iran” and "A Solution for the US-Iran Nuclear Standoff" with Thomas Pickering and William Luers in the New York Review of Books (2008, 2009);“Iran's Nuclear Program: Motivations, Consequences, and Options” in Terrorist Attacks and Nuclear Proliferation: Strategies for Overlapping Dangers (Academy of Political Science, 2007), and “Learning from Past Success: The NPT and the Future of Non-proliferation” for the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission chaired by Hans Blix (2006). Dr. Walsh also served as editor for the book series, Terrorism: Documents of International & Local Control and his writings have appeared in several scholarly journals including Political Science Quarterly, the Nonproliferation Review, International Studies Review, and Contemporary Security Policy.

Before coming to MIT, Dr. Walsh was Executive Director of the Managing the Atom project at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a visiting scholar at the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He has taught at both Harvard University and MIT. Dr. Walsh received his Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.