Linton Wells II
American public servant (born 1946) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American public servant (born 1946) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linton Wells II (born 1946) is an American public servant and educator who served a total of 51 years in government service. He served 26 years in the United States Navy as an officer, and then was appointed by the President of the United States as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, serving through two administrations of both parties, both the Democrat Bill Clinton and the Republican George W. Bush. He wrote many books, articles, and white papers on matters of national security, including important texts related to the use of American military capabilities in global humanitarian operations. His expertise focused on the strategic impacts of technological change and on building resilience to natural and man-made disasters as issues of US national security. He shaped, over five decades of public service, current US Department of Defense directives that link policy and technology with public-private cooperation. His writings significantly altered U.S. and international approaches to civil-military engagement, US policy in global humanitarian assistance, and global public-private partnerships in disaster relief.[1] He has also made fundamental contributions to technical areas that have defined [2] network-enabled military capabilities and cyberspace operations.[3] After retiring from public service, he continued to contribute to the international STAR-TIDES network that he had founded in 2007,[4] a consortium of several thousand global nodes comprising agencies, organizations, institutions and individuals in 40+ countries that promote the free exchange of research results on global issues of human security. As of 2024 he is Executive Advisor to the Center for Resilient and Sustainable Communities (C-RASC)[5] at George Mason University and chairs the Advisory Group of the C4I and Cyber Center there. C-RASC has been working with the People-Centered Internet[6] (PCI) on ways to “put humanity at the center of the Internet” and support a variety of revitalization initiatives. He is on the board of PCI, and also the President and CEO of Global Resilience Strategies and Senior Advisor to Resilient Japan.[7] He was listed by Fortune magazine in 2009 as one of the top 16 "Players of Tech".[2]
 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. (September 2023) |
Linton (Lin) Wells II | |
|---|---|
Wells in 2020 | |
| Born | |
| Status | Active |
| Education | U.S. Naval Academy, Johns Hopkins University |
| Occupation(s) | US Naval Officer, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, Educator |
| Spouse | Linda |
| Children | Linton Wells III, Frank M. Wells |
| Parent(s) | Linton Wells, Fay Gillis Wells |
| Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense (Networks and Information Integration)/Chief Information Officer | |
| In office 6 March 2004 – 14 November 2005 | |
| President | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | John P. Stenbit |
| Succeeded by | John Grimes |
Wells spent over 50 years in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), including 26 years uniformed service in the Navy where he retired as a Captain (O-6). While on active duty he served as Commanding Officer of the USS Joseph Strauss, DDG-16 and Commander of Destroyer Squadron 21. He subsequently served 14 years within the Senior Executive Service[8] in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). During his years in The Pentagon he was appointed by President Bush to be Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense (Networks and Information Integration) and DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO).[9][10] After completing several appointments within the Pentagon, in 2007 he accepted an offer to become the Force Transformation Chair at National Defense University. He was additionally selected in 2010 to direct the NDU Center for Technology and National Security Policy and, later, to be Interim Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS).
His post-government work focused on the impact of rapidly changing technologies on U.S. national security policy, emphasizing the strategic importance of the accelerating and converging developments in Biotechnology, Robotics, Information technology, Nanotechnology and Energy ("BRINE"), a term coined by his colleague Frank Hoffman. He now is a Visiting Distinguished Research Fellow at INSS at NDU, and Executive Advisor to the C4I and Cyber Center in the Volgenau School of Engineering and to transdisciplinary Center for Resilient and Sustainable Communities (C-RASC), both at the George Mason University (GMU). He is widely published on the national security implications of workforce issues, including:
He serves on several national and international advisory boards,[13][14] and is the Managing Partner of Wells Analytics, LLC, and President of Global Resilience Strategies.
Wells was born in Luanda, Angola, the son of American foreign correspondent Linton Wells and pioneer aviator Fay Gillis Wells.[15] His education included:
In twenty-six years of commissioned service he served in a variety of ships as a Surface Warfare Officer. A full roster of his shipboard service includes:
Ashore he served in the Pentagon and on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations (OP 090R). During his career he acquired experience in operations analysis with particular expertise in the Pacific, Indian Ocean and Middle Eastern affairs through the lens of Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C3I)[18]
Wells served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1977 to 1980 and from 1991 to 2007, with his final position being that of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Networks and Information Integration). He served as the Acting Assistant Secretary and DoD Chief Information Officer on two occasions, in 2001 and again in 2004–5.[9] He was a White House political appointee in both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.
His other OSD positions included Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (C3I) and Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Policy Support) in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy). He is the author of a well-known 2001 memo on the “unpredictable nature of great power relations” that has been cited by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.[19]
Throughout his time in government, Wells became known for his transformational contributions in four broad areas:
Wells married Linda Marie Motta in New Bedford, MA in 1976. They have two children: Linton Wells III and Frank Motta Wells.[29]
Wells has written widely on security studies in English and Japanese journals. He has also co-edited a series of books on international transformation and leader development.[30]
He has published more than 30 monographs, book chapters and articles, many of which are available from the National Defense University website.
