Russ Howard

BG Russell D. Howard, USA (Ret.)  

Professor of Practice

Brigadier General Russell Howard (Retired) is a hobby farmer in Minnesota. He is a veteran officer of the United States Army Special Forces, a professor, and a counterterrorism expert. He was Founding Director of the Combating Terrorism Center and head of the Social Sciences Department at West Point, Founding Director of the Jebsen Center for Counterterrorism Studies at the Fletcher School, and Director of the Monterey Terrorism Research and Education Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. 

During his 35 year military career, General Howard served as Commander of the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Lewis, Washington. He held the position of Army Chief of Staff Fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and served as Assistant to the Special Representative to the Secretary General during UNOSOM II in Somalia, Deputy Chief of Staff for I Corps, and Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander for the Combined Joint Task Force, Haiti/Haitian Advisory Group. General Howard was Commander of 3d Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He also served as the Administrative Assistant to Admiral Stansfield Turner and as a Special Assistant to the Commander of SOUTHCOM. As a newly commissioned officer, General Howard served as an "A" Team Commander in the 7th Special Forces Group from 1970 to 1972. He left the active component and then served in the U. S. Army Reserve from 1972 to 1980. During this period he served as an Overseas Manager, American International Underwriters, Melbourne, Australia, and China Tour Manager for Canadian Pacific Airlines. He was recalled to active duty in 1980 and served initially in Korea as an Infantry Company Commander. Subsequent assignments included Classified Project Officer, U.S. Army 1st Special Operations Command, at Fort Bragg, and Operations Officer and Company Commander, 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group in Okinawa, Japan. 

General Howard was an Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy, a Senior Service College Fellow at the Fletcher School, and is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Joint Special Operations University. General Howard holds a Bs in Industrial Management from San Jose State University, a BA in Asian Studies from the University of Maryland, an MBA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and an MPA from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

His recent publications include The Nexus Between Traffickers and Terrorists: The New Clear and Present Danger? (McGraw Hill Create, 2014); Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Understanding the New Security Environment, 4th. ed., with Bruce Hoffman (McGraw Hill Create, 2011); Homeland Security and Terrorism: Readings and Interpretations, 2d. ed., with James J.F. Forest and Joanne C. Moore (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2013); Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism, 2d. ed., with James J.F. Forest  (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2012), and several monographs published by JSOU Press. Other publications are featured in The Hill, Sentinel, Connections Quarterly Journal, Army Magazine, Journal of Contemporary China, and Military Review.