Dr. Walter L. Christman is a pioneer in the global adoption of new ventures in defense education cooperation to enable enhanced regional and global security.
He is President of Global Strategic Analysis, LLC, and chairman and founding director of the Global Challenges Forum Foundation, an organization of think tanks, research centers, and academic institutions contributing to the much-needed resolution of existing and future global resilience challenges. In collaboration with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, he launched the Global Knowledge Networking initiative to foster innovation in next-generation leadership development.
Dr. Christman’s 30-year career with the U.S. government spanned service in the Armed Forces, U.S. Congress, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House, with travel to more than 50 countries, and more than 10 years of service as a U.S. diplomat. He was associate professor of global public policy with the Naval Postgraduate School; visiting distinguished research fellow of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University; and visiting scholar at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.
He has overseen strategic collaboration efforts, supporting the Office of the Secretary Defense and U.S. Joint Forces Command in collaboration with the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and through bilateral agreements with partner nations in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Principal architect and negotiator for multiple Secretary of Defense memoranda of understanding with foreign partners, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service for his role in conceiving and establishing the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch, Germany, and was principal architect of NATO’s Partnership Training policies.
His Ph.D. in international relations is from the University of Geneva, a master’s in public administration from Harvard University, a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s from Duke University. He served four years active duty on a U.S. Army Special Forces A-Team trained in the delivery of man-portable nuclear weapons. He is Airborne-, Ranger-, and Special Forces–qualified, and was awarded a medal for heroism for risking his life to save others during a peacetime training incident. Dr. Christman was the 2017 Inductee to the Army ROTC Hall of Fame at Duke University.
He is the principal architect of seven Secretary of Defense initiatives, three of which were endorsed by a United States president.
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All the main issues explored in Dr Christman’s forthcoming book Global Resilience (scheduled to be published by Global Resilience Publishing), are laid out in a 45-minute interview with him on India’s educational TV channel, Edumate.