Derek Smith has been writing and teaching in the fields of security studies and international law for several years. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, he grew up in the Washington DC area before heading north to attend college at Harvard University. While there he spent two summers at the U.S. State Department, working in the Nonproliferation Bureau and the Office of Policy and Planning. His senior thesis, "The Next Strategic Confrontation: Controlling the Proliferation of Dual-Use Satellite Systems," received the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize. After graduating summa cum laude in the Department of Government, Derek moved to Oxford University on a Keasbey Scholarship where he earned a masters and doctorate in International Relations, winning the Marchioness of Winchester Prize for his dissertation. Derek served as a Lecturer in International Relations and also founded Oxford's first university-wide all-male a cappella group, Out of the Blue.

Upon returning to the United States, Derek began law school at Yale and continued writing his book Deterring America. During his summers he worked for the Civil Appellate Staff at the Department of Justice and at the Washington DC offices of the law firms Latham & Watkins and Jones Day. He taught a Yale college seminar entitled "Strategies Against WMD Proliferation" and spent part of a term working at the Connecticut State Attorney's Office. After graduating from law school, Derek served as a law clerk to Judge Randolph on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He now lives in Washington DC and is an associate at Latham & Watkins.