PAUL N. STOCKTON, PH.D.

Dr. Stockton leads Paul N Stockton LLC, a strategic advisory firm in Santa Fe, NM. He helps private sector and government leaders strengthen the resilience of US infrastructure. He also chairs the Board of Directors of Analytic Services, Inc., the Homeland Defense and Defense Support to Civil Authorities subcommittee of DOD’s Reserve Forces Policy Board, and the Grid Resilience for National Security subcommittee of DOE’s Electricity Advisory Committee.

As Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs from 2009-2013, Dr. Stockton led the development of DOD’s Strategy for Mission Assurance and strengthened defense partnerships with Canada, Mexico, and other Western Hemisphere nations. He helped guide Defense support in responding to Superstorm Sandy and other catastrophes. Dr. Stockton also served as Executive Director of the US Council of Governors and led Department policy initiatives on continuity planning and antiterrorism/force protection.

After leaving office, Dr. Stockton pioneered the analysis of how grid reliability differs from resilience in Resilience for Black Sky Days (2014). His recent studies on infrastructure resilience include Resilience for Grid Security Emergencies: Opportunities for Industry-Government Collaboration (June 2019), Strengthening the Cyber Resilience of the North American Energy Systems (September 2020), and Securing the Grid from Supply-Chain Based Attacks (September 2020). In addition, he facilitates and helps design grid exercises, including the GridEx IV and V Executive Tabletops, and testifies before Congress and federal and state regulatory proceedings.

Dr. Stockton supports resilience initiatives in other infrastructure sectors as well. Strengthening the Cyber Resilience of America’s Water Systems: Industry-Led Regulatory Options (August 2021) examines new opportunities to counter intensifying threats. In addition, he has helped FEMA and DHS assess and mitigate risks of cascading failures across infrastructure sectors, and served as contributing editor to the 4th Edition of the National Response Framework.

Dr. Stockton is also examining how China may use information operations (IOs) to shape US decision-making in confrontations over Taiwan or other crises and, potentially, combine IOs with cyberattacks to convince the president to yield. Defeating Coercive Information Operations in Future Crises (2021) analyzes these threats and proposes strategies to counter them.

Dr. Stockton holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and a BA from Dartmouth College. He was twice awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, DOD's highest civilian award. DHS also awarded Dr. Stockton its Distinguished Public Service Medal. After leaving DOD, Dr. Stockton served as Managing Director of Sonecon LLC. Prior to becoming Assistant Secretary, he was a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, an Associate Provost of the Naval Postgraduate School, a Legislative Assistant for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and served as the founding director of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security.

Dr. Stockton is a Senior Fellow of the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. He also serves on the Science and Technology and Strategic Advisory Committees of the Idaho National Laboratory. He is currently drafting publications on Blackstart Power Restoration for a Greener Grid, Deterring and Defeating Chinese Cognitive Domain Operations, Employing the Reserve Component for Homeland Defense, and Resilience Strategies for the Decentralizing Electric System.