Students who study at The Institute of World Politics have access to outside guest lecturers, many of whom are among the most prominent figures in government and the broader policy community. Here is a partial list of past guest lecturers at IWP classes and events.
- Col. Carl Glenn Ayers USA, chief of Psychological Operations, Joint Staff, Department of Defense
- Dr. Piotr Bajda, Assistant Professor, Cardinal Wyszynski University in Poland
- Timothy Beardson, Founder, Crosby Financial Holdings; China expert
- Luke Bencie, President, Security Management International, LLC
- Ilan Berman, Vice President, American Foreign Policy Council
- Dr. Randall Bowdish, Retired Navy Captain; published author on terrorism
- Shawn Brimley, former Director of Strategic Planning, White House National Security Council
- Scott Carpenter, Deputy Director, Google Ideas
- Frank Cilluffo, former Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security (External Affairs); Senior Analyst, Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Angelo Codevilla, Department of International Relations, Boston University; former Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution; former Staff Member, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
- Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs
- Douglas J. Feith, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy
- Francis Fukuyama, former Deputy Director of Policy Planning, Department of State; author, The End of History and the Last Man
- Andrew Garfield, founder, Glevum Associates; former senior military intelligence advisor to British Ministry of Defence
- Bill Gertz, National Security Correspondent, Washington Times
- Joel Harding, Information Operations Association
- Richard Haver, former Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; former National Intelligence Officer for Special Activities, CIA; and former Executive Director, Intelligence Community Affairs
- Michael V. Hayden, former Director, National Security Agency (NSA); former Director, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Max Holland, journalist; editorial board member, The Nation magazine
- Dr. Paula Holmes-Eber, Professor of Operational Culture at Marine Corps University
- Peter Huessy, Senior Defense Consultant, National Defense University Foundation; President, GeoStrategic Analysis
- Mark Hewitt, former Director, Defense Continuity Program Office; former Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict
- Oleg Kalugin, former Soviet KGB major general
- David Kay, Senior Fellow, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies; former IAEA Inspection Team Leader, Iraq
- Jon Kyl, U.S. Senator from Arizona; Chairman, Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security
- Andrzej Kolodziej, President, Pomorska Inicjatywa Historyczna Foundation
- Francisco Lainez, former Foreign Minister of the Republic of El Salvador
- Stanislav Levchenko, former Soviet KGB officer
- Todd Leventhal, Director, Office to Counter International Misinformation, US Department of State
- Samuel Liles, Associate Professor, Purdue University-West Lafayette
- Aaron Linderman, Doctoral Candidate, Texas A&M
- Clare Lockhart, CEO of the Institute for State Effectiveness
- Carnes Lord, former national security advisor to the Vice President of the United States; Professor of Military and Naval Strategy, US Naval War College
- Michael Maibach, Senior Fellow at The Aspen Institute, formerly President and CEO of the European-American Business Council
- Brig. Gen. Jack Nicholson (Ret.), veteran of 30 years active duty
- Michael Novak, Director of Social and Political Studies, American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
- Michael E. O’Hanlon , Senior Fellow, Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence; Director of Research for the Foreign Policy Program , Brookings Institution
- Robert Reilly, then-Director, Voice of America
- Peter Rodman, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs; former Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Director, Policy Planning Staff, Department of State
- Diane Roark, then Senior Staff Member, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
- James Schlesinger, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), former Secretary of Energy, and former Secretary of Defense
- Maj. Gen Michael A. Snodgrass USAF (Ret), former Chief of Staff, US Africa Command (AFRICOM)
- George Tenet, former Director, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Michelle Van Cleave, former National Counterintelligence Executive; formerly Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
- Caspar Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense
- R. James Woolsey, former Director, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Brig. Gen. Simon P. Worden USAF (Ret.), former deputy director of operations at SPACECOM and is a noted authority on military satellites and missile defense, and former director of the Office of Strategic Influence (OSI), at the Office of the Secretary of Defense
- Col. Larry M. Wortzel (Ret.), former Director of the Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College; Commissioner, US-China Economic Security Review Commission
- HIH Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie, Chairman of the Crown Council of Ethiopia
- Susan Yoshihara, Director, International Organizations Research Group; Senior Vice President for Research, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute