Francis X. Winters is Professor of ethics and international affairs and member of the Core Faculty at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. He has been a member of the Council of Foreign Relations since 1986.

His intellectual interests include the ethics and dynamics of the Cold War. On the logic and apocalyptic risks of the nuclear deterrence strategy of the European (NATO and Warsaw Pact) nations, he coedited and coauthored: Ethics and Nuclear Strategy? (Orbis, 1977)

Another ethically problematic development of the Cold War period was the United States' long and futile engagement in Vietnam. During the final years of the Cold War, he undertook a series of interviews with senior members of Kennedy's adminstration who had held principal responsibility for policy in Vietnam. These interviews were undertaken to determine why Kennedy had chosen in 1963 to overthrow America's nine-year ally, President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, despite almost daily warnings from many of his most trusted officials that such a coup d'etat in the midst of their civil war would lead to chaos and the eventual loss of the war there. The result of these interviews and of a subsequent review of official records was published by the University of Georgia Press in 1997: The Year of the Hare: America in Vietnam: January 25, 1963-February 15, 1964. The paperback edition was published in March, 1999. (Representative reviews are available.)

His scholarly articles on issues of ethics and national security policy appeared in The Review of Politics, Theological Studies, Etudes (Paris), The Month (London), Streven (Antwerp), Survival (London), Razon y Fe (Madrid), Commentary, The National Interest, and The National Review. Journals of opinion which published his essays included: The Times (London), La Liberation (Paris), The Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, Die Presse (Vienna), America, and Commonweal.

In recognition of his research and publications in these two areas, Professor Winters was elected to the Council on Foreign Relations (New York) and to the International Institute of Strategic Studies (London) in 1986. He lectured on various Cold War issues at The U.S. Army War College from 1976 to 1989 and occasionally at the other Senior War Colleges, as well as at the Department of State and the CIA. He was also invited to lecture for university audiences such as the University of Louvain, the University of Alaska, and the Kennedy School of Government and the Divinity School at Harvard University. Other lectures were given at: the Chautauqua Institution (The Hall of Philosophy lectures), and at Le Cercle des Interalliés (Paris). Less academic lecture invitations included: cruises on the Royal Viking Sun and the Royal Viking Queen on the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Seas, and several cruises transiting the Panama Canal.

Radio and television appearances took place on: BBC (Radio Three), French National Television (TF 1), Vatican Radio, and the U.S. Southern Command channel, Panama Canal Zone.

Professor Winters is currently researching a study on the ethics of the American bombing of Hiroshima.