William Van Cleave

William Robert Van Cleave (August 27, 1935 – March 15, 2013) was an American political scientist and an advisor to President Ronald Reagan, the United States Department of Defense, and Department of State as well as Emeritus Professor, former head, and the founder of Missouri State University's Department of Defense and Strategic Studies (DSS). The DSS program is now located in Arlington, Virginia, close to Washington D.C. He was also advisory council member of the Center for Security Policy, board advisor of the American Center for Democracy, and National Institute for Public Policy. As a strategic thinker, he is remembered as a leading Cold Warrior and long-standing hawkish policy advocate.

Academic background and military service Van Cleave received a B.A. in political science from the California State University, Long Beach as well as his M.A. and Ph.D. (1967) from the Claremont Graduate School (now Claremont Graduate University). His dissertation was titled "Nuclear Proliferation: The Interaction of Politics and Technology," and supervised by Harold W. Rood. He was Senior Research Fellow in National Security Affairs at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.

Van Cleave was Professor and Director of the Defense and Strategic Studies Program at the University of Southern California from 1967-87. Under his leadership, the DSS program started in 1971 in the School of International Relations at USC. The primary objective of the program was to provide graduate level education and training for students planning careers in national and international security affairs, policy-making, and teaching at the university-level. The program moved to Southwest Missouri State University (now MSU) in 1987 where DSS became a Department offering specialized Master of Science degree. In 2005, the University moved the Department physically to Fairfax, Virginia, to take advantage of the many opportunities that are available to the Washington metropolitan area. Trustee member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and Board Member of the Committee on the Present Danger.

Professor Van Cleave died on March 15, 2013 and is buried in Hemet, California.