Professional Affiliation

Founder, the Center on Congress at Indiana University; Vice Chair, 9/11 Commission

Expert Bio

Lee H. Hamilton was president and director of The Wilson Center from 1999 until 2010. He is currently director of The Center on Congress at Indiana University. Hamilton served for 34 years in Congress representing Indiana's ninth district, from January 1965 to January 1999.



Since leaving the House, Hamilton has served on the United States Commission on National Security in the 21st Century (the Hart-Rudman Commission), and was co-chair of the Baker-Hamilton Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos. Mr. Hamilton served as Vice-Chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission), and as co-chair of the Iraq Study Group. He is Co-Chair of the National Security Preparedness Group with Tom Kean, Co-Chair of the National Advisory Committee to the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, co-chair of the Department of Energy Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future with Brent Scowcroft, and serves on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, the FBI Director’s Advisory Board, the US Department of Homeland Security Task Force on Preventing the Entry of Weapons of Mass Effect on American Soil, and the CIA External Advisory Board.



Hamilton is the author of A Creative Tension: The Foreign Policy Roles of the President and Congress; How Congress Works and Why You Should Care; Strengthening Congress; and co-author of Without Precedent: the Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission and The Iraq Study Group Report.

Previous Terms

President and Director, The Wilson Center, 1999-2010