Colonel Paul Hughes is the interim Vice President of the Center for Applied Conflict Transformation. He also serves as both a Special Advisor to the President of the United States Institute of Peace and as the Director of Overseas Safety and Security, and as the Executive Director for the 2018 National Defense Strategy Commission. He retired from the military in 2005 after 30 years of service, and now specializes in topics including arms control, weapons of mass destruction, and missile defense.
Colonel Paul Hughes is the interim Vice President of the Center for Applied Conflict Transformation. He also serves as both a Special Advisor to the President of the United States Institute of Peace and as the Director of Overseas Safety and Security, and as the Executive Director for the 2018 National Defense Strategy Commission. He retired from the military in 2005 after 30 years of service.
He has also served as the Senior Advisor for International Security and Peacebuilding and as the Institute’s Chief of Staff. He was the Executive Director for both the 2010 and 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panels and the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. Previous to those positions he served as the Director of Iraq Programs for USIP.
Prior to joining USIP, he served in the Army from 1975-2005, retiring as a Colonel. He served in Iraq on several occasions and has extensive service in the Asia-Pacific region. As the Director of National Security Policy on the Army, he developed and provided policy guidance in numerous areas. He served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) as Deputy Director of the Office for Humanitarian Assistance and Anti-Personnel Landmine Policy. He also planned and coordinated the DOD response to a variety of natural disasters in Central America, Africa, and the Middle East.
His awards include two Defense Superior Service Medals, three Bronze Star Medals, four Meritorious Service Medals, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, four Army Commendation Medals, and several campaign and service ribbons.
He specializes in arms control, weapons of mass destruction, missile defense, emerging nontraditional security issues, and crisis prediction, with particular expertise in Russia, Iran and Iraq.
Colonel Hughes holds two Master’s degrees of Military Arts and Sciences from the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College and a B.A. in Sociology from Colorado State University.