Dr Frank Hoffman

Dr. Frank Hoffman holds an appointment as a Distinguished Research Fellow at the National Defense University in Washington DC. He is a retired U.S. Marine infantry officer and former Pentagon analyst. As a national security scholar and policy practitioner he has served in the Department of Defense for nearly 40 years including senior executive political appointments in the Clinton and Obama Administrations. He has served on a variety of Commissions and special study bodies and joined the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in June 2011. During 2014 and 2017 he served as a special assistant to the Deputy Secretary and Secretary of Defense.

Dr. Hoffman was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1978, graduating as the Distinguished Military Graduate from the NROTC Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He served for eight years as an infantry officer in the Second and Third Marine Divisions, as well as a company commander at the Marine School of Infantry. From 1986-2001, he served in the Marine Reserves, where his last position was with the Strategic Initiatives Group of the Commandant of the Marine Corps. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the Marine Corps Reserve in the summer of 2001.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Hoffman has lectured extensively both in the United States and overseas. He is an award winning author, published one book (Decisive Force; The New American Way of War, 1996), and 100 essays and articles in academic and military journals including Orbis, Journal of Strategic Studies, and the RUSI Journal. His latest research and book, Mars Adapting, Military Change during Wartime, is forthcoming with Naval Institute Press.

Dr. Hoffman graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and holds graduate degrees with honors from George Mason University and the Naval War College. He earned his Ph.D. in War Studies from King’s College, London.