Michael Leonard Nacht (born September 1, 1942) is an American government official and an author of five books and 70 journal articles. Born in New York City, Nacht graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in 1959. He earned a B.S. degree in aeronautics and astronautics from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

in 1963, an M.S. degree in statistics from

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

in 1966, an M.S. degree in operations research from New York University in 1969, an M.A. degree in political science from

the New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...

in 1970 and a Ph.D. degree in political science from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1973. Nacht was an associate director at the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School of Government from 1973 to 1984, and then, from 1986 to 1994 worked as a dean and professor at the School of Public Affairs of the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. From 1994 to 1997 he worked as an assistant director of Strategic and Eurasian Affairs of the

Arms Control and Disarmament Agency The U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) was an independent agency of the United States government that existed from 1961 to 1999. Its mission was to strengthen United States national security by "formulating, advocating, negotiating, ...

and helped the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...

to negotiate the arms reduction between United States, Russia and China. From 1998 to 2008 he was a dean at the

Goldman School of Public Policy The Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy, or the Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP), is a public policy school and one of fourteen schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. Originally named the Graduate Sch ...

in the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. After the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, he became an

Assistant Secretary of Defense Assistant Secretary of Defense is a title used for many high-level executive positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense within the U.S. Department of Defense. The Assistant Secretary of Defense title is junior to Under Secretary of De ...

for

Robert Gates Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and retained b ...

. On May 18, 2009, he was appointed as an

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs, or ASD(GSA), is a position in the Office of the Secretary of Defense that develops policy for the Secretary on countering weapons of mass destruction, nuclear forces and missile defen ...

. He is currently a full professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches a course on nuclear security.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nacht, Michael 1942 births Living people Civil servants from New York City Writers from New York City New York University alumni Case Western Reserve University alumni The New School alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni United States Department of Defense officials Clinton administration personnel Harvard Kennedy School people University of Maryland, College Park faculty Goldman School of Public Policy faculty