Richard J. Danzig
2013 Philip A. Crowl Memorial Lecture
At the Annual Naval War College Dinner in the Washington Navy Yard on May 9, 2013, Dr. Richard J. Danzig gave a Phillip A. Crowel Lecture, “Our Insecure Futures: How Can Prepare and Cope?”
Professor Philip A. Crowl served as the first Chairman of the Strategy Department of the
Naval War College from 1973 until his retirement in 1980. An acclaimed expert on military
history, he was the driving force of the Strategy Department throughout those years during
a time of major change and reinvigoration often called “The Turner Revolution.” As a result,
he made a monumental contribution to the development of strategic thinking at the Naval
War College. Retiring to Annapolis, he continued to teach for the Naval War College as an
Adjunct Professor in the College of Distance Education Fleet Seminar Program until his
death in 1991.
The Honorable Dr. Richard J. Danzig, is former Chairman of the Center for a New American Security, a Trustee of the RAND Corporation, a member of the Defense Policy Board and the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, and a director of Saffron Hill Ventures (a European venture capital fund). In recent years his other activities have included service as the Chairman of the Board of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and as a member of the Boards of Public Agenda, the Partnership for Public Service, the National Semiconductor Corporation (a New York Stock Exchange Company sold to Texas Instruments in 2011) and Human Genome Sciences (a NASDAQ company sold to GlaxoSmithKline in 2012).
From the spring of 2007 through the presidential election of 2008, Dr. Danzig was a senior advisor to Senator Obama on national security issues. Dr. Danzig served as the 71st Secretary of the Navy from November 1998 to January 2001. He was the Under Secretary of the Navy between 1993 and 1997.
Dr. Danzig is a senior advisor at the Center for a New American Security, the Center for Naval Analyses, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. His primary activity is as a consultant to the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security on terrorism.
Dr. Danzig was born in New York City in 1944. He received a B.A. degree from Reed College, a J.D. degree from Yale Law School, and Bachelor of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Upon his graduation from Yale, Dr. Danzig served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White.
Between 1972 and 1977, Dr. Danzig was an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Law at Stanford University, a Prize Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows, and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow. During this period, he wrote a book on contract law and articles on constitutional history, contracts, criminal procedure, and law and literature.
From 1977 to 1981, Dr. Danzig served in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, first as a Deputy Assistant Secretary and then as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs and Logistics. In these roles, he contributed particularly to the development of the Department’s ability to mobilize manpower and materiel for deployment abroad. In 1981, he was awarded the Defense Distinguished Public Service Award. He received that same honor—the highest Department of Defense civilian award—twice more in 1997 and 2001 for his work with the Navy and Marine Corps.
Between 1981 and 1993, Dr. Danzig was a partner in the law firm of Latham and Watkins. Resident in Washington, his unusually broad legal practice encompassed white-collar crime defense work, civil litigation, and corporate work, including heading the firm’s Japan practice. During this time he coauthored a book on national service, taught contracts at Georgetown Law School, and was a Director of the National Semiconductor Corporation, a Trustee of Reed College, and litigation director and then vice chair of the International Human Rights Group. In 1991, he was awarded that organization’s Tony Friedrich Memorial Award as pro-bono human rights lawyer of the year.
Dr. Danzig and his wife, Andrea, reside in Washington, DC, where Mrs. Danzig has an active
practice as a psychotherapist. They have two adult children, David and Lisa. Mr. Danzig’s recent publications include Driving in the Dark: Ten Propositions About Prediction and National Security and, as co-author, Aum Shinrikyo: Insights into How Terrorists Develop Biological and Chemical Weapons, both published by the Center for a New American Security.
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