William S. Smith

Bill earned his PhD with distinction at CUA. He holds a master’s degree in political philosophy from CUA and a bachelor’s in history from Georgetown University. His dissertation explored war and peace in democratic societies by applying critiques of Romanticism offered by Irving Babbitt, the esteemed Harvard scholar. Mr. Smith’s thesis links Babbitt’s concept of democratic imperialism to certain theorists of democracy, particularly Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and makes historical and contemporary applications.

Bill also has 25 years of experience in government and in corporate roles. His career has included senior staff positions for the Republican House leadership on Capitol Hill, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and in the Governor’s office in Massachusetts. He then spent ten years at Pfizer Inc as Vice President of Public Affairs and Policy where he was responsible for Pfizer’s corporate strategies for the U.S. policy environment. He later served as a consultant to major pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies.

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Publications

• “Democracy Promotion Abroad, Complete and Utter Breakdown at Home,” The American Conservative, July 13, 2020.
• “Jeane J. Kirkpatrick: 30 Years Unheeded,” The National Interest, June 15, 2020.
• “Time to Break Up the FBI?” The American Conservative, May 18, 2020.
• “Ukraine and the Clash of Civilizations,” The National Interest, May 12, 2020.
• “What is the U.S. Navy Doing in the Persian Gulf?” Spectator USA, April 29, 2020.
• “The Blob Sucked Away Your Public Health and Gave You War Instead,” April 3, 2020.
  “An Ingenious Way to Restore Constitutional War Authority,” The Hill, September 12, 2019.
• “A Debauched Culture Leads to a Debauched Foreign Policy,” The American Conservative, September 4, 2019.
• “Mike Pompeo: American Jacobin,” The American Conservative, May 28, 2019.
• “When Conspiracy Is the Only Explanation for Failed Neo-Liberal Dreams,” The American Conservative,
  February 4, 2019.
• “Mitt Romney Shows Establishment Still Ignorant of Wartime Casualties,” The Hill, January 3, 2019.
• Democracy and Imperialism: Irving Babbitt and Warlike Democracies (University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, MI: 2019)