John Tierney - Council for a Livable World

Executive Director

John Tierney is the Executive Director at Council for a Livable World, where his work focuses on national security issues in Congress, nuclear nonproliferation, missile defense, and other areas of peace and security.

Tierney is a former nine-term Massachusetts congressman who served on the House Intelligence Committee and chaired the National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee. During his congressional career, Tierney spent considerable time advocating on nuclear non-proliferation and national security issues. As a Member, Tierney was regularly endorsed by the Council for a Livable World for his leadership in arms control and preventing nuclear proliferation.

Tierney’s 18-year career included oversight of the Government Accountability Office’s annual assessment of the Pentagon’s Weapons Selection Programs and reform of overall Pentagon spending. In 2009, Foreign Policy Magazine praised Tierney, noting that he “has a reputation for taking on thorny oversight issues the House Armed Services Committee shied away from.”

Tierney’s congressional colleagues have repeatedly honored his non-proliferation and national security work:

“There was no one in Congress I trusted more than John Tierney on issues of national security and no one I trusted more to strike the right balance between protecting the American people and pursuing peaceful solutions to world problems.”

– Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader

“In his years in the U.S. House of Representatives, John was an unyielding force for stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons.”

– Senator Edward J. Markey

“Throughout his career, John Tierney has been a relentless champion on eliminating weapons of mass destruction in the Mideast and around the world.”

– Ambassador Peter Galbraith

Tierney holds a B.A. from Salem State College and J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.

Tierney is an appointed member of the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), an advisory committee established by the U.S. Congress with the official mandate of promoting the fullest public access to a thorough, accurate and reliable documentary record of significant U.S. national security decisions and activities. The Board also advises the President and other Executive Branch officials on the identification, collection, and review for declassification and release of declassified records and materials of archival value.

He is also a member of the Higher Education Task Force of the national Bipartisan Policy Center (PBC) tasked with improving the affordability and accountability of the U.S. Higher Education system.