Franklin C. Miller KBE (born 1950) is a retired senior U.S. government official who is now an independent defense consultant and a Principal at the Washington-based international business advisory firm The Scowcroft Group. He also holds positions with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Center for Naval Analyses. He serves on several corporate Boards and also is a member of a number of U.S. government advisory bodies. Miller served 31 years in the U.S. government, including the Department of State, the Department of Defense and, finally at the White House as a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush.[1]
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Mr. Miller attended Williams College and graduated (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1972 with highest honors in Political Science and honors in History. Following graduation from Williams, he joined the U.S. Navy and served three years onboard USS Joseph Hewes (DE 1078) as Communications Officer and then as the ship's Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer. He earned the Surface Warfare Officer designator while on the Hewes. Following active duty, Mr. Miller attended Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, earning a Masters in Public Affairs (MPA) degree in 1977. During his time as a graduate student Miller served in the naval reserve and was assigned to the Philadelphia-based destroyer USS Johnston (DD 821).
Immediately following graduation from the Woodrow Wilson School, Mr. Miller joined the U.S. Department of State as a Political-Military Affairs Officer, a post he held until the summer of 1979. He then joined the Theater Nuclear Policy Office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), a post he held for two years. In late 1981 he was promoted to head OSD's Strategic Forces Policy office. He held this post for eight years, during which he had unusual influence on the evolution of US deterrence policy and on US nuclear targeting policy. During this period he also forged new and important relationships between the Department of Defense and the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. He was promoted into the Senior Executive Service (SES) in mid-1984.
Mr. Miller was promoted to the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy in the fall of 1989. In addition to continuing his pioneering work in nuclear deterrence and targeting policy and in US-UK interaction, Mr. Miller played a significant role in the completion of the START 1 treaty, in the 1991 Presidential Nuclear Initiatives, and in the creation of the START 2 treaty.
In 1993 Mr. Miller was promoted to be the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Policy). In September 1996 he became the Acting Assistant Secretary (ISP), a post he held for fourteen months. In November 1997, he became the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategy and Threat Reduction, a newly created organization. He became Acting Assistant Secretary for Strategy and Threat Reduction in October 2000 and held that post until January 20, 2001. During the periond September 1996 through January 2001 Miller served concurrently as chairman of NATO's nuclear policy committee, the "High Level Group" (HLG).
In late January 2001 Mr. Miller joined the White House staff as a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and as the Senior Director for Defense Policy and Arms Control on the National Security Council (NSC) staff. He retired from the U.S. Government in March 2005 with an accumulated 31 years of federal service.
Mr. Miller's first post-government employment was as a vice president with The Cohen Group, a Washington-based international business consulting firm. In March 2008 he became a senior counselor at Cohen Group and also began practicing on his own. In August 2010 he left Cohen Group to become a Principal at the Scowcroft Group. He also holds positions as a non-resident Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and as a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA). He serves on the Board of Directors of EADS-North America and of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. Mr. Miller also serves pro bono on a number of U.S. Government advisory boards.
U.S. Awards and Honors:
Mr. Miller has been awarded the Defense Department's highest civilian medal, the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award, five times. He was awarded the Department's Distinguished Public Service Medal in lieu of a sixth award. In addition, over the course of his career, Mr. Miller was honored with the Department of State Distinguished Honor Medal, the Department of the Navy's Distinguished Public Service Medal, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, the National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator's Gold Medal for Distinguished Service, the Defense Intelligence Agency's Director's Medal and the Presidential rank award of "Distinguished Executive" .
Foreign Awards and Honors:
Mr. Miller has also been given three major foreign awards. He has received the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit in the grade of Grand Officer, the French Legion of Honor in the grade of Officer, and, in December 2006, he was awarded an honorary knighthood, a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), by Queen Elizabeth II.