James Finkel was in government service as Director of National Intelligence’s Special Assistant for War Crime and Related Issues. Prior to that, he directed Intelligence Community efforts on early warning and prevention of mass atrocities. He represented the Director of National Intelligence during Presidential Study Document Number 10, which gave rise to the President’s Atrocities Prevention Board. During that same period, he oversaw the Intelligence Community’s efforts to support US policy towards the international criminal tribunals. He was also responsible for developing, organizing, and managing the Intelligence Community’s pre-eminent analytic Group focused on prevention and accountability for war crimes and systematic human rights violations.
He was a member both of the Senior Intelligence Service and the Senior Analytic Service. In May 2014 he was awarded the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal. He is founder and co-convener of the Washington-based Atrocity Prevention Study Group. He is a Courtesy Professor of Practice at the University of Oregon, a non-resident fellow at the Stimson Center, and a Visiting Scholar at George Mason’s S-CAR. Mr. Finkle received his Masters in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.