Dr. Richard D. Hooker, Jr. became the NDU Director for Research and Strategic Support and Director, Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) in September 2013. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, he served as Deputy Commandant and Dean of the NATO Defense College in Rome from September 2010-August 2013.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and the Foreign Policy Research Institute and is a Fellow of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society. A former White House Fellow, Dr. Hooker previously taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point and held the Chief of Staff of the Army Chair at the National War College in Washington, D.C. He also served with the Office of National Service, The White House under President George H.W. Bush, with the Arms Control and Defense Directorate, National Security Council during the Clinton Administration, and with the NSC Office for Iraq and Afghanistan in the administration of George W. Bush. While at the NSC he was a contributing author to The National Security Strategy of the United States. His areas of expertise include Defense Policy and Strategy, the Middle East, NATO/Europe and Civil-Military Relations.

Dr. Hooker graduated with a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy in 1981 and holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in International Relations from the University of Virginia. He is a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. National War College, where he earned an M.S. in National Security Studies and also served as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. His publications have been used widely in staff and defense college curricula in the US, UK, Canada and Australia and include more than fifty articles and three books on security and defense-related topics. Dr. Hooker has lectured extensively at leading academic and military institutions in the United States and abroad. Prior to his retirement from active duty, Dr. Hooker served for 30 years in the United States Army as a parachute infantry officer in the United States and Europe. While on active duty he participated in military operations in Grenada, Somalia, Rwanda, the Sinai, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, including command of a parachute brigade in Baghdad from January 2005 to January 2006. His military service also included tours in the offices of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the Army.