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Institutional
Affiliations
The Institute
for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies: Co-Director of
Division for Research in Strategy (1)
Southwest
Missouri State University: Professor and Department Head of
Defense and Strategic Studies (1)
Center
for Security Policy: Member of National Security Advisory Council
(3)
National
Institute for Public Policy: Participant, U.S. Nuclear Forces
and Arms Control Study (4)
Hoover
Institution: Former Senior Research Fellow (1981-1996) (1, 2)
International
Institute of Strategic Studies: Member of Board of Trustees
(1)
Committee
on the Present Danger: Former Member of Executive Committee
(1)
University
of Southern California: Professor of International Relations
and Director of Defense and Strategic Studies Program (1967-1987)
(1)
Government
Posts/Panels/Commissions
U.S. Delegation
to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks: Former Member (1)
U.S. Department
of Defense: Former Special Assistant to the Secretary for Strategic
Policy and Planning (1)
Team B
Strategic Objectives Panel (late 1970s): Former Member (1)
Arms Control and Disarmament Agency: Former Chairman-Designate of the General Advisory Committee (5)
Office
of the President: Former Senior Advisor and Defense Policy Coordinator
(1979-1981) (1)
U.S. Department
of Defense Transition Team: Former Director (1)
U.S. Marine
Corps: Former Officer (2)
Education
California
State University: B.A. in political science (1)
Claremont
Graduate School: M.A.; Ph.D. (1)
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Highlights
& Quotes
William Van Cleave is chair of the Defense and Strategic Studies Department at Southwest
Missouri State University (SMSU). Van Cleave is a longtime advocate of increased military spending and a more aggressive defense policy, including a more flexible nuclear weapons strategy, the deployment of a comprehensive missile defense system, withdrawal from arms control treaties, and unwavering support for the military hardliners in Israel.
In the 1970s, Van Cleave was a leading figure among the Cold Warriors who opposed détente with the Soviet Union and were critical of what were regarded as the moderate threat assessments of Soviet military strength and global ambitions. Van Cleave was a member of the infamous Team B Strategic Objectives Panel, an independent threat assessment committee authorized by George H. W. Bush, director of central intelligence in the Ford administration. Other team members included Richard Pipes (father of Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum) and Gen. Daniel Graham, whose "High Frontier" missile defense proposal foreshadowed President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), or "Star Wars." The team's advisory panel included Paul Wolfowitz, Paul Nitze, and Seymour Weiss-all close associates of Albert Wohlstetter. (8) Van Cleave was an executive member of the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), a political action group that shared the alarmist threat assessments of Team B. The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was modeled on the Committee on the Present Danger.
At SMSU, Van Cleave has been part of a circle of other militarists who were part of the Committee on the Present Danger, such as William R. Graham and Charles Kupperman. Graham and Kupperman are currently SMSU adjunct faculty, and are joined by such nuclear weapons advocates as Henry Cooper, Keith Payne, and Colin Gray. Another SMSU professor who is part of this right-wing circle is J.D. Crouch, who served a short term as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy in the George W. Bush administration before returning to SMSU.
Van Cleave is associated with an array of militarist think tanks and advocacy groups, including National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP), Center for Security Policy, and the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies. Van Cleave was a team member of a recent NIPP strategy document that was used as a blueprint for George W. Bush's Nuclear Posture Review. (2) (4) (7)
Van Cleave is a member of the Center for Security Policy's National Security Advisory Council, and he is co-director of research in strategy at the Jerusalem-based Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, a think tank closely associated with the Likud party and the military hardliners in Israel that also has an office in Washington, DC. Among the goals of this right-wing Zionist institute is to ensure that Israel has a "robust missile defense." (1) (3)
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