In the second episode of Justice Matters, Carr Center's Executive Director Sushma Raman interviews Senior Fellow Alberto Mora on the U.S. policy to use torture under the Bush administration, its impacts on US/international relations, and U.S. sentiment on the use of torture.

Alberto J. Mora is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, where he teaches and conducts research on issues related to human rights, foreign policy, and national security strategy.

Mora retired in August 2013 from Mars, Incorporated, which he joined in 2008 as Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel. During his tenure, he served as the senior legal advisor to the Board of Directors, the CEO, and the other members of the CEO’s corporate leadership team and had oversight and management responsibility for all Mars legal strategies, issues, matters, services and resources.

Mora’s career prior to joining Mars includes broad experience in the law, industry, and government. From 2001 to 2006, Mora served as the General Counsel of the Department of the Navy. As the chief legal officer for both the Navy and Marine Corps, he managed more than 640 attorneys and personnel across 146 offices throughout the United States and overseas and oversaw the Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps and the Marine Corps Staff Judge Advocates. Additionally, he served as the Reporting Senior of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, as the Department’s Chief Ethics Officer and, on occasion, as Acting Secretary of the Navy. Earlier in his career, Mora also served in the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Service Officer and as General Counsel of the United States Information Agency in the George H.W. Bush administration. From 2006 to 2008, he served as General Counsel of Walmart International.

Mora holds a Bachelor’s degree and Honorary Doctorate from Swarthmore College and a law degree from the University of Miami School of Law. In 2014, he was an Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University. A member of the Council of Foreign Relations, he sits on the Board of Directors of Human Rights First and Freedom House. In 2006, Mora was awarded the John F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation’s Profile in Courage Award in recognition of his opposition -- while serving as Navy General Counsel -- to the cruel interrogation of detainees in the post-9/11 period. His detainee-related activities at the Navy have been widely reported in periodicals, books and documentaries. In 2013, he was included in Mariana Cook’s book Justice as one of 99 individuals worldwide who has made a significant contribution to human rights.