Mr. Robert Williams

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Chair/Visiting Professor

Bob Williams is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Senior Agency Representative to National Defense University, and NGA Chair and faculty member at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security & Resource Strategy, National Defense University, Washington D.C.

Mr. Williams has served in analytic and management positions across NGA, as well as Joint Duty Assignments certified by the Department of Defense and Office of the Director for National Intelligence (ODNI). Before joining NDU, Mr. Williams led NGA’s interactions in the Joint Capabilities Integration & Development System (JCIDS) with Joint Staff directorates at the Pentagon. Previously, he was a senior intelligence officer for the Indo-Pacific region and NGA’s representative to Commander, US Seventh Fleet based in Yokosuka, Japan aboard USS BLUE RIDGE (LCC-19) from 2014-2017.

He holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS), where he majored in Science, Technology, and International Affairs (STIA), and a M.A. Security Studies with a concentration in International Security, both from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. He was a John Carroll Fellow and is currently pursuing a doctorate, also from Georgetown. His academic research interests include the role of nuclear weapons and emerging technology amid renewed strategic competition, the readiness of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex to address contemporary security challenges, and alignment of strategic weapons deployment with 21st century threats to international stability. During 2021-2022, Mr. Williams developed a monograph on these topics as a fellow in the Ann Caracristi Institute at National Intelligence University, Bethesda, M.D., and has co-published articles for a Joint Staff-sponsored invited perspectives campaign supporting U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) interests and the U.S. Army Training & Doctrine Command (TRADOC).