Nipp

Mr. David J. Trachtenberg joined the National Institute for Public Policy in August 2019 as Vice President.  Previously, he was nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in October 2017 as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and served in this capacity until July 2019. From October 2017 until January 2018, he also served as the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the primary policy advisor to the Secretary of Defense. He was also the Department’s coordinator for mitigating civilian casualties in military operations. Previously he was an independent consultant in national security affairs and President and CEO of Shortwaver Consulting, LLC. He has over 40 years of public policy experience in the private sector and in government.

As Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy in the George W. Bush administration, he worked on issues involving NATO, proliferation, Russia, and arms control. Concurrently, he was Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Forces Policy, overseeing the office that developed the Nuclear Posture Review and provided policy support for U.S. withdrawal from the ABM Treaty and the initial deployment of a national missile defense capability.

Mr. Trachtenberg also served as a senior professional staff member on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), where he provided policy oversight of export control and technology transfer issues, peacekeeping, terrorism, nuclear weapons and arms control, missile defense, nonproliferation, and cooperative threat reduction with the former Soviet Union. Prior to his Capitol Hill experience, he was a member of the technical staff of The Analytical Sciences Corporation, consultant to the President’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament, Senior Defense Analyst for the Committee on the Present Danger, and research associate with the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, Inc.

Mr. Trachtenberg was twice awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the highest honorary award presented by DOD to private citizens.

Mr. Trachtenberg received an A.B. degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California and a Master of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. He has testified before multiple congressional committees and has been widely published.