Clark A. Murdock

Clark Murdock (born c. 1940s) is a senior adviser at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington, D.C.–based foreign policy think tank. Murdock specializes in strategic planning, defense policy, and national security affairs. He also serves as the Director of the Project on Nuclear Issues, a collection of nuclear experts from government, academia, the national laboratories, the military, and the private sector.

In 2000, Murdock taught military strategy, the national security process, and military innovation at the National War College. From 1995 to 2000, he was deputy director of the headquarters planning function for the United States Air Force. As deputy special assistant to the chief for long-range planning, he helped define a coherent strategic vision for the 2020 Air Force and institutionalize a new long-range planning process. As deputy director for strategic planning, he helped implement the new planning process and led the development of several new planning products. Before joining the Air Force, he headed the Policy Planning Staff in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

Murdock has served in many roles in the defense world, including as a senior policy adviser to House Armed Services Committee chairman Les Aspin, as an analyst and Africa issues manager in the CIA, and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He also taught for 10 years at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is an honors graduate of Swarthmore College and holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.