William Luti

William Luti is an adjunct fellow at Hudson Institute. He is a defense and foreign affairs expert, having served in a wide variety of US Navy, Defense Department, and White House national security positions.

As a former vice president of Hudson Institute, Luti directed Hudson’s strategic planning efforts to shape and advance the research mission, growth, and financial health of the Institute.

He served at the White House as the special assistant to President George W. Bush for defense policy and strategy on the National Security Council staff. He directed the president’s personal defense staff and was responsible for interagency management for security cooperation, international defense agreements, cyber defense, national space policy, defense plans in support of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, advanced conventional and nuclear strike capability, and defense transformation and force planning.

As deputy undersecretary of defense for near Eastern and South Asian affairs, he managed the Defense Department’s relations with 27 near East and South Asian countries. He helped plan worldwide changes in the US defense posture for the war on terrorism, developed new defense partnerships with India and Pakistan, and advised senior policy makers on Israeli-Palestinian peace diplomacy.

He served over 26 years as a career naval officer in numerous policy and operational assignments to include the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel; the CNO’s Strategic Studies Group; a legislative fellow for the speaker of the house; and as a special advisor for national security affairs for the vice president. 

His operational assignments included a broad array of naval and air exercises with nations in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea. He has commanded an aviation squadron, an amphibious assault ship, and a three-ship Amphibious Ready Group. He is a combat veteran of the 1991 Desert Storm air campaign and deployed with his amphibious assault ship to the Persian Gulf in response to the 1998 UN inspections crisis with Iraq.

He holds a PhD from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, an MA from the US Naval War College, and a BA from The Citadel. He was awarded the Ambassador Edmund P. Gullion Prize for academic excellence by the faculty of the Fletcher School. He is a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Mr. Luti’s writings on defense and foreign affairs have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, Defense One, Real Clear Defense, and US Naval Institute Proceedings, and he has also appeared on Fox News Reports.