George F. Oliver

George F. Oliver III graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1974 and served 31 years in the U.S. Army. His last military assignment was with the U.S. Army Center of Military History where he was writing the official history of the U.S. Army in peace operations. Before this position, he spent six months in Iraq as the Deputy Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance for the Coalition Provisional Authority. From 1999–2003, Colonel Oliver served as the Director of the U.S. Army Peacekeeping Institute in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from 1996–1999, the Military Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. George Oliver earned a Master of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina (1983) and a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College (1996). While on active duty, Professor Oliver served in a variety of light infantry, ranger, Special Forces, and airborne units across the globe including service during the 1990–1991 Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom. His interest in peacekeeping and peacebuilding began in 1993, while the Operations Officer for the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana where the first ever U.S. oriented peacekeeping exercise took place. Since then he has been involved in several peacekeeping missions, developed U.S. national policy, and analyzed these roles for U.S. forces. Additionally he has taught, written and lectured in over 20 countries on the role of the military in peace operations and in peacebuilding. This interest and professional focus continued while working at the United Nations and as the Director of the U.S. Peacekeeping Institute. Professor Oliver is also one of the authors on the United States Army’s book on the Gulf War, Certain Victory, and has published several articles. Since 2005, George Oliver is serving as a professor at the U.S. Naval War College and the Coordinator for a program in the Peace Operations Training Institute. This past year in addition to teaching both a core course at the US Naval War College and an elective on Understanding and Resolving Conflict, Professor Oliver taught peacekeeping in Kazakhstan and Liberia to their armed forces and a course for the U.S. Institute of Peace, entitled, Peacebuilding Organizations and Institutions.