Senior Fellows

General John R. Allen is a retired U.S. Marine Corps four-star general and former commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces – Afghanistan. He additionally served as Special Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. As the senior advisor to the secretary of defense on Middle East Security, Allen led the security dialogue with Israel and the Palestinian Authority within the Middle East peace process. After 37 years of service with the Marine Corps, Allen now specializes in advanced and emerging technologies at the intersection of geopolitics and geostrategic relations, and has co-authored two books in this domain. As a co-inventor, he shares five patents related to artificial intelligence.

General David Berger served as the 38th commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps from 2019 to 2023. Throughout his 42 years of service with the Marines, he led strategic operations and commanded the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, during Operation Secure Tomorrow; Regimental Combat Team 8 during Operation Iraqi Freedom; and 1st Marine Division (Forward) during Operation Enduring Freedom. His staff and joint assignments include assistant division commander of 2nd Marine Division; policy planner in the Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate (J5); chief of staff for Kosovo Force headquarters; director of operations in plans, policies, and operations at Marine Corps headquarters; and deputy commandant for combat development and integration.

Vice Admiral Raquel C. Bono was the director of the Defense Health Agency, where she oversaw management of all 55 military treatment facilities and more than 300 associated clinics. Before that, from 2013 to 2015, she served as the 11th chief of the Navy Medical Corps. A trained surgeon, Bono served as head of casualty receiving at Fleet Hospital Five in Saudi Arabia during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Her staff assignments included director for medical-surgical services at the National Naval Medical Center (now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center), commanding officer of Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Florida; command surgeon for U.S. Pacific Command, Hawaii; and acting commander of the Joint Task Force National Capital Region Medical.

Dr. Richard J. Danzig has been a consultant to U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense on national security issues. He served as the seventy-first secretary of the Navy from November 1998 to January 2001. He was the under secretary of the Navy from 1993 to 1997. From the spring of 2007 through the presidential election of 2008, Dr. Danzig was a senior advisor to then-Senator Barack Obama on national security issues. He has served as a director of National Semiconductor Corporation and Human Genome Sciences Corporation and on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and the secretary of defense’s Defense Policy Board.

Ms. Lisa S. Disbrow has thirty-two years of service in national security, including Senior Executive Service, U.S. Air Force active and reserve service, and, most recently, as the Senate-confirmed under secretary of the Air Force (2015–2017) and then acting secretary of the Air Force (January 2015 to June 2017). Other assignments include vice director, Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment (J-8) on the Joint Staff; special director for policy implementation on the president’s national security staff at the White House; and a senior systems engineer at the National Reconnaissance Office. She is currently an independent director on the board of Mercury Systems; CACI; BlackBerry; Sequa Corp.; SparkCognition; LMI; HENSOLDT, Inc.; and the Wounded Warrior Project.

Christine Fox served until 2022 as Assistant Director for Policy and Analysis at APL, a position she held since 2014. Previously, she served as Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense from 2013 to 2014. In her role as acting deputy, she became the highest-ranking woman ever to work in the Pentagon. She officially retired from the Pentagon in May 2014. She also served as Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation in the Department of Defense from 2009 to 2013, where she led several Department-wide reviews related to operations, technology, and especially the budget. She served as president of the Center for Naval Analyses from 2005 to 2009, after working there as a research analyst and manager since 1981.

General David L. Goldfein was the 21st chief of staff of the Air Force from 2016 to 2020, responsible for organizing, training, and equipping 685,000 forces and civilians serving in the Air Force worldwide. Goldfein was previously Air Force vice chief of staff and director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. He was commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command in Southwest Asia from 2011 to 2013 and held command positions at air bases in New Mexico, Idaho, Germany, and Italy. A rated command pilot, Goldfein flew combat missions in operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Allied Force, and Enduring Freedom, and logged more than 4,200 flight hours in T 37, T 38, F 16C/D, F 117A, MQ 9, and MC 12W aircraft over his 37-year career.

Mr. James R. Gosler is one of the nation’s foremost experts on cybersecurity and information operations. He served more than three decades in various cyber- and nuclear weapon-related positions at Sandia National Laboratories. During his Sandia career, he was invited by the National Security Agency to serve as the lab’s first visiting scientist, he created and led the Vulnerability Assessments Program, and, in 2003, he was appointed Sandia’s sixth fellow. Mr. Gosler previously served as the first director of the Clandestine Information Technology Office at the Central Intelligence Agency. He is a former member of the Defense Science Board, the Naval Studies Board, and the NSA Advisory Board.

Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III is president of SJL Global Insights LLC. He served nearly forty years in the U.S. Navy as a surface warfare officer, rising to become commander of U.S. Pacific Command. Among his many command positions at sea, he served as commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, and commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, U.S. Naval Forces Africa, and NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command. Ashore, Admiral Locklear served as head of the Navy programming and assessment divisions; the 78th commandant of midshipmen, U.S. Naval Academy; and director, Navy Staff.

The Honorable Ellen M. Lord was presidentially appointed as under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics in August 2017 and then served as under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment (A&S) from February 2018 until January 2021. As under secretary of defense for both organizations, she was responsible to the secretary of defense for all department matters related to acquisition. She has more than 30 years of experience in industry, with over 20 years in the defense industry. She was president and chief executive officer of Textron Systems from 2012 to 2017 and was previously senior vice president and general manager of Textron Defense Systems as well as senior vice president and general manager of AAI Corporation (now a division of Textron). She is a former vice chairman of the National Defense Industrial Association, is a former director of the U.S.-India Business Council, and sat on the U.S. Naval Institute Foundation’s board of trustees.

Admiral Charles Richard is former commander of U.S. Strategic Command, where he was responsible for one of eleven unified commands under the Department of Defense, overseeing global command and control of U.S. strategic forces to achieve strategic deterrence. He served 41 years in the U.S. Navy, where he led at all levels including as commander, U.S. submarine forces, and as director of Undersea Warfare at the Pentagon. At sea, he commanded the USS Parche and Submarine NR-1 and served on the USS Portsmouth, USS Asheville, and USS Scranton. His staff assignments include executive assistant and naval aide to the under secretary of the Navy and chief of staff for Submarine Force Atlantic. He is a James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the University of Virginia Miller Center.

Admiral John M. Richardson served as the 31st Chief of Naval Operations from September 2015 to August 2019. Admiral Richardson served on both fast attack and ballistic missile submarines and commanded the USS Honolulu (SSN 718) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He also commanded Submarine Development Squadron 12, Submarine Group 8, NATO Submarine Allied Naval Forces South and the U.S. Navy Submarine Force. Before becoming CNO, he was the Director of the Naval Reactors. Richardson’s staff assignments include naval aide to the president, teacher for prospective submarine commanding officers, Joint Staff Operations Directorate, and Director of Strategy and Policy at U.S. Joint Forces Command.

Admiral James G. Stavridis is an operating executive of the Carlyle Group, following five years as the dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He led the NATO alliance in global operations from 2009 to 2013 as supreme allied commander and also served as commander of U.S. Southern Command, with responsibility for all military operations in Latin America, from 2006 to 2009. He was the longest-serving combatant commander in recent U.S. history. He is NBC News chief international analyst and a monthly columnist for Time. He holds a Ph.D. in international relations and has published nine books, as well as serving as chair of the U.S. Naval Institute.

Dr. Paul N. Stockton is the managing director of Sonecon, LLC. Before joining Sonecon, Dr. Stockton was the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and Americas’ security affairs (May 2009 to January 2013). In that position, he was responsible for defense critical infrastructure protection and defense continuity of operations, and was the principal civilian advisor to the secretary of defense for providing Department of Defense assistance in Superstorm Sandy and other disasters. Dr. Stockton founded the Center for Homeland Defense and Security and served as the associate provost of the Naval Postgraduate School.

Former deputy secretary of defense Robert O. Work was the Defense Department’s second-ranking civilian leader from 2014 until 2017, after a term as under secretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2013. He served twenty-seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps, retiring as a colonel after holding a wide range of command, leadership, and management positions. He has also been chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security, vice president for strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, and an adjunct professor at George Washington University.