Barron YoungSmith was a fellow in the Future Security Program at New America.
He served for seven years as a counsel on the House Armed Services Committee, where he handled the European policy portfolio, including authorization and oversight of the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI), the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), and the response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and detention policy issues, including the effort to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility. He also served as the minority staff lead on the Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee and as the director of communications, and temporarily handled the Indo-Pacific, Africa, and acquisition portfolios.
He previously worked as an adviser to Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA), on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and in the U.S. Coast Guard JAG office as well as at Slate, The New Republic magazine, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He received a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.