Steven Clemons was appointed as Washington editor-a-large of The Atlantic and editor-in-chief of AtlanticLIVE, the magazine's live events series, in June 2011. He is an American journalist and blogger and is the publisher of the popular political blog, The Washington Note, and a former staff member of Senator Jeff Bingaman. Clemons is also Director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation where he previously served as Executive Vice President, and the former director of the Japan Policy Research Institute. He characterizes himself as a "progressive realist".
Clemons is the former executive vice president of Economic Strategy Institute, former executive director of the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom, and served as Senator Jeff Bingaman's Senior Policy Advisor on Economic and International Affairs. He has also served on the advisory board to the Center for U.S.-Japan Relations at the RAND Corporation. Earlier in his career, Clemons was the executive director of the Japan America Society of Southern California from 1987 to 1994.
In 1993, Clemons was the technical advisor for the film Rising Sun, which starred Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes. Clemons also had a role as a talk show host. He also had a role in the film State of Play, starring Ben Affleck.
Clemons also serves on the Board of Advisors of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland and the Clarke Center at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.