The Honorable Dr. Kathleen H. Hicks serves as the 35th Deputy Secretary of Defense. Previously, she held senior positions at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. From 2009 to 2013, she served as a senior civilian official in the Department of Defense. Her 25-year career has also included time served in the Obama administration in senior positions in defense policy and strategy, and she has become an expert in issues such as counterterrorism and homeland security, long-term futures, and weapons of mass destruction proliferation.
The Honorable Dr. Kathleen H. Hicks serves as the 35th Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Prior to becoming Deputy Secretary, Dr. Hicks held the position of senior vice president, Henry A. Kissinger Chair, and Director of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. From 2009 to 2013, she served as a senior civilian official in the Department of Defense. Confirmed by the United States Senate in 2012 as principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, she was responsible for advising the secretary of defense on global and regional defense policy and strategy. She also served as deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy, plans, and forces, leading the development of the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance and the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review and crafting guidance for future force capabilities, overseas military posture, and contingency and theater campaign plans.
Dr. Hicks is concurrently the Donald Marron Scholar at the Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She serves on the Boards of Advisors for the Truman Center and SoldierStrong and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Hicks served on the National Commission on the Future of the Army and currently serves on the Commission on the National Defense Strategy.
She is the recipient of distinguished service awards from three Secretaries of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She received the 2011 DOD Senior Professional Women’s Association Excellence in Leadership Award.
She is an expert in counterterrorism and homeland security, defense industry, acquisition and innovation, defense strategy and capabilities, defense and security, geopolitics and international security, long-term futures, and weapons of mass destruction proliferation.
Dr. Hicks is a frequent writer and lecturer on geopolitics, national security, and defense matters. She is the co-editor of Asia-Pacific Rebalance 2025: Capabilities, Presence, and Partnerships and The Future of U.S. Civil Affairs Forces.
She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.P.A. from the University of Maryland, and an A.B. magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Mount Holyoke College.
Articles
Increasing Awareness Among Young Americans and Lessening the Civil-Military Divide
Kathleen Hicks, Senior Vice President; Henry A. Kissinger Chair; Director, International Security Program, testified before the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service on...
“FY 2018 Endgame: Assessing the State of Defense”
Originally published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Read the full report here. This commentary outlines the various successes and failures of the...
“The Russian Threat You’re Not Hearing About”
Though Russian "election hacking" and misinformation campaigns are well covered in the news, there is less focus on Russian “out-of-area” military activity, which as Hicks points...
Redefining NATO Security Investment: Moving Beyond 2%
As the title suggests, Dr. Hicks argues that NATO should form a new mechanism for measuring the value of each partner's outputs. This should include...