Richard L. Kugler

Dr. Richard L. Kugler is an internationally known, heavily published thinker, writer, and scholar on US national security policy and defense strategy. He is especially known for his sophisticated analyses of complex policy issues and options and for producing innovative policies, strategies, plans, programs, and budgets that help shape official thinking. A Search for Strategic Wisdom: Guiding the Twists and Turns of US National Security Strategy is Dr. Kugler’s twentieth book. In addition, he has published many journal articles, book chapters, and official studies in this field.

A political scientist, defense economist, and operations research analyst, Dr. Kugler holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His long career in this field stretches back to the late 1960s. During 1968 to 1972, he was an Air Force officer and a Vietnam War veteran. During 1975 to 1984, he served as a senior defense analyst and Federal Senior Executive in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Program Analysis and Evaluation). From 1984 to 1988, he was director of the Pentagon’s Strategic Concept Development Center and an adviser to the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During 1988 to 1997, he was a senior defense strategist, corporate research leader, and associate chairman of the political science department at the RAND Corporation, a top think tank. From 1997 to 2006, he was a Distinguished Research Professor at the National Defense University, and a senior consultant there during 2006 to 2013.

While at RAND, Dr. Kugler worked with Dr. Ronald Asmus and Dr. F. Stephen Larrabee to play an instrumental role in creating the US strategy for NATO enlargement. RAND publicly credited their work as one of its most significant accomplishments in over fifty years, a conclusion that was echoed by many newspapers and political leaders in the United States and Europe. In addition to his work on NATO enlargement, Dr. Kugler is widely known for his influential contributions to the creation of the NATO Response Force, US defense policies in Europe during the Cold War and afterward, US security strategy in the Persian Gulf, and the US global military presence.

Dr. Kugler’s many books include Commitment to Purpose: How Alliance Partnership Won the Cold War (1993), Toward a Dangerous World: U.S. National Security Strategy for the Coming Turbulence (1996), The Global Century: Globalization and National Security (two volumes, edited with Dr. Ellen Frost, 2001), Policy Analysis in National Security Affairs: New Methods for a New Era (2006), New Directions in U.S. National Security Strategy, Defense Plans, and Diplomacy (2011), and Strategic Shift: Appraising Recent Changes in U.S. Defense Plans and Priorities (with Linton Wells II, 2013).

Dr. Kugler has been awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, the Exceptional Civilian Service Medal, the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, and other decorations. Dr. Kugler also has served as an adjunct professor of international relations at Georgetown and George Washington Universities, where he taught hundreds of graduate students.

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