Douglas Reckamp

Candidate for JD at Harvard Law School. Retired veteran of 30+ year career in the US Navy. Six years as assistant professor of National Security Studies at the National War College in Washington D.C. Taught Statecraft 1, a historical perspective of statecraft examining application of Military, Diplomacy, Economic, and Information instruments of power at different levels of analysis from the Peloponnesian War through the Cold War. He was course director for an elective titled Strategy: Brand X, in which students applied tools from complexity, complex adaptive systems, chaos, evolution, and non-linear dynamics fields of study to the emergence of seemingly strategic behavior in leaderless groups of components or organisms, from ant colonies to human cultures. He led annual practicum regional studies courses where a small group of students invested a year of focused studies on a particular country or region, culminating in travel to that region and followed by submission of a thesis paper on a proposed strategy toward a particular associated interest or problem. Led practicum study groups for Ethiopia, Egypt (x2), Vietnam, China/Hong Kong/Taiwan, and Brazil. Served as NWC Chief of Naval Operations Chair for four years, providing leadership and supervision over all Navy students and faculty while representing Navy interests and equities at the higher National Defense University level. Attended Santa Fe Institute’s Complex Systems Summer School, a month long in-residence program of study that brings together ~80 practitioners of complexity studies from a diverse fields of advanced disciplines from anthropology to zoology. He had a leadership role in the Afghan Hands program from 2012-2015. In-theater program director for one year with oversight of over 200 Hands from all military services plus 20 civilian Schedule C hired specialists. He placed Hands with advanced levels of cultural and language training into advisory positions embedded across over 100 different chains of command at 68 operating bases across Afghanistan and Pakistan, advising from the district to national ministerial/presidential levels in specialty fields including business development, courts, and law enforcement. He then served as Afghanistan Division Chief in the Joint Staff Plans and Policy Directorate, providing military advice to the Chairman and President, personally preparing 11 congressional engagements and primary military briefer for 4. Commanded USS TOLEDO (SSN 769) nuclear powered fast attack submarine. Travelled to 40 countries, visiting over 100 ports by sea on 5 continents

Companies

• Law Student Harvard Law School (2021)
• Faculty National Defense University (2015 — 2021)
• Student Santa Fe Institute (2019 — 2019)
• Division Chief Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2014 — 2015)
• In Theater Program Manager AFPAK Hands (2012 — 2014)
• Commanding Officer USS TOLEDO (SSN 769) US Navy (2009 — 2011)
• Submarine Squadron FOUR Deputy Commander for Readiness US Navy (2007 — 2009)
• Speechwriter/Enterprise Management US Navy (2005 — 2007)
• Executive Officer, USS PORTSMOUTH (SSN 707) US Navy (2003 — 2005)

Education

• Master's degree National War College (2011 — 2012)
• Master's of Science The University of Texas at Austin
• Bachelor's degree United States Naval Academy