Aspen Strategy Group

Richard A. Falkenrath

Principal, The Chertoff Group
Contributing Editor, Bloomberg News
Adjunct Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Program:
Aspen Strategy Group

Biography

Richard Falkenrath is a Principal at The Chertoff Group, Contributing Editor at Bloomberg News, and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he was Deputy Commissioner of Counterterrorism at the New York City Police Department. From 1993 until 2000, Commissioner Falkenrath worked at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, first as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; then as Executive Director of the Center; and finally as Assistant Professor of Public Policy. In December 2000, Commissioner Falkenrath joined the Bush-Cheney Transition Team, where he was involved in preparing for the presidential transition within the National Security Council. He then joined the White House staff, where he served continuously until May 2004. He first served as Director for Proliferation Strategy on the National Security Council staff; then as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Policy and Plans within the Office of Homeland Security; then as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Homeland Security Advisor. After leaving the White House, Commissioner Falkenrath became the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution and a security analyst at CNN. Commissioner Falkenrath is the author or coauthor of Shaping Europe’s Military Order (1995), Avoiding Nuclear Anarchy (1996), and America’s Achilles Heel: Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Terrorism and Covert Attack (1998). He is a graduate of Occidental College, with degrees in Economics and International Relations summa cum laude, and holds a Ph.D. from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, where he was a British Marshall Scholar. He is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group.