Lincoln has senior executive experience in foreign policy and national security issues, including alliance relationships worldwide and sensitive conflict issues in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. He was the federal regulator for four years of defense exports (and temporary imports) under the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, with years of prior experience in DoD managing bilateral defense relationships. He has extensive experience dealing with senior foreign officials including heads of state and chiefs of defense, and negotiating agreements on issues such as:
- Military basing and access
- Host nation support to US forces
- Arrangements involving control and destruction of shoulder-fired missiles, landmines and small arms and light weapons
- Alliance and coalition relationships, including providing forces to coalition operations.
Lincoln has testified several times before Congress, published books and articles on international security issues, and provided media commentary on a wide range of U.S. foreign policy and international security topics, including Middle East security, challenges with China and North Korea, and the growing utilization of space by civil and military sectors.
Lincoln is chairman emeritus of the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan security think tank in Washington, D.C.
He previously was a Presidential Special Envoy, with the rank of Ambassador, from 2008 to 2009, leading U.S. efforts to protect international aviation from shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. Prior to joining Akin Gump, Lincoln served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs from 2001 to 2005.
Lincoln also served as President George W. Bush’s special representative on the landmine issue and led the U.S. government’s international outreach on critical infrastructure protection, including cybersecurity.
Lincoln has broad private sector experience as founder and President of Palmer Coates LLC, with significant roles in several policy advisory entities and technology startup companies.
Lincoln is author of The Ayatollahs and the MEK: Iran’s Crumbling Information Operation (University of Baltimore, 2019) and The Mujahedin-e Khalq – MEK: Shackled by a Twisted History (University of Baltimore, 2013), and editor of Global Markets and National Interests: the New Geopolitics of Energy, Capital, and Information (CSIS press, 2000).
