Dr. Luke Bellocchi

Luke Bellocchi is Associate Professor of Practice, National Defense University (NDU), Eisenhower School, and formerly at NDU, Joint Advanced Warfighting School (JAWS), where he taught strategy and the modern China elective. He has served in senior and senior executive positions throughout his government career, mainly focusing on homeland security policy.  Prior to teaching, he served as the Immigration Detention Ombudsman at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  As required by statute, he reported directly to the Secretary after conducting investigations and serving as an independent and impartial resource for relevant stakeholders to resolve problems related to immigration detention.  Previously, he served at DHS as Assistant Commissioner, Customs & Border Protection (CBP), and as Deputy Ombudsman for Citizenship and Immigration Services.  He also had served as Strategic Advisor, Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation. 

Earlier in his career, Mr. Bellocchi acted as Counsel on both House and Senate Committee staff, including at the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), Senate Leadership, and House Judiciary Committee.  His work included oversight investigations and hearings concerning counter-terrorism, detention issues, border security, comprehensive and merit-based immigration reform, human trafficking, watch-listing, fraud and corruption, countering domestic terrorism, and implementing 9/11 Commission recommendations. He has testified at a Senate hearing on homeland security policy.

He started his full-time government career as an Attorney Advisor at the U.S. Department of State, handling consular, visa, and citizenship issues.  He was on long-term detail to the Operations Center (S/ES) to handle crisis management, including the evacuations of numerous U.S. embassies and consular posts (including NEOs and those related to the Kosovo campaign and the al Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies Nairobi and Dar es Salaam); he participated in SOCEX training and evacuation training at posts abroad.  He also served in temporary positions at U.S. Consulate General, Toronto, and U.S. Embassy, Gaborone, and has lived long-term in numerous OCONUS locales, including India, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Botswana, Hawaii, and Vietnam. 

He has followed China /Taiwan issues for over 30 years.  He is author of a number of peer-reviewed articles on China, including, on the Strategic Importance of Taiwan, US One China Policy: A Primer, and Antidumping in the Non-market Economy of the People’s Republic of China. He has also published on strategy, including articles on Red Teaming and critical thinking, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Dr. Bellocchi earned degrees from the University of Virginia (Darden School of Business), Georgetown Law School, National Intelligence University, State University of New York, and the University of Rochester.  He is a member of the Bar in Maryland, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia.