Spencer P. Boyer is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy. In this role, he is responsible for managing the day-to-day defense relationship between the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union, and the nations of Europe. He also supports the Secretary of Defense, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs by developing and implementing key security strategies in Europe and deepening defense cooperation with over 40 countries. He comes to this role with over 25 years of law and policy, foreign relations, and national security experience in the public, private, and non-profit sectors.

Mr. Boyer served in senior roles in both terms of the Obama administration. 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 (NIO) for Europe in the National Intelligence Council—the center for long-range strategic thinking within the U.S. Intelligence Community. As NIO, he served as the senior European affairs analyst and principal subject matter expert on Europe for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and as the primary bridge between the intelligence and policy communities on European affairs.

Mr. Boyer has been an Adjunct Professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a Director, 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, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University (NYU) School of Law. He has also been a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School.

Mr. Boyer began his professional career as an Associate with the international law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Washington, D.C. Subsequently, he worked in The Hague as a Law Clerk to the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, in Zurich as a Staff Attorney at the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland, and in Paris as Counsel at the International Court of Arbitration. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and received his J.D. from NYU School of Law, where he specialized in public international law and the work of international organizations. While at NYU, he also obtained a master’s degree in French Studies, with a concentration in French politics, history, and economy.