Areas of Expertise: WMD Education, Countering WMD Policy, WMD Intelligence, WMD Proliferation, WMD Interdiction, Chemical and Biological Weapons
Mr. Brendan G. Melley is the Director of National Defense University’s Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CSWMD), which provides education, research, and policy support to the U.S. national security community on WMD challenges. Arriving in 2011 as a Senior Research Fellow, he led the Center’s support on countering WMD and counterproliferation policy issues until his selection as Director in 2018. Prior to joining the WMD Center, he was a vice president at the Cohen Group, and international business consulting firm. From 2001-2005, Mr. Melley served on the National Security Council staff as Director for Intelligence Programs, and for Proliferation Strategy. He supported priority U.S. intelligence and counterproliferation efforts and led the coordination of WMD interdiction policies across the Federal government. Mr. Melley managed the development and implementation of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a voluntary and multilateral political agreement to cooperate against the proliferation of WMD, delivery systems, and related materials.
Previous civilian government experience includes senior staff assignments at the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and as a professional staff member on the Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Mr. Melley served on active duty as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division (Light), and as a military intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Mr. Melley graduated from Providence College, Rhode Island, the Postgraduate Intelligence Program at DIA, and has a Master of Science in WMD Studies from Missouri State University.