Program Director, the Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction Studies

Matthew Vaccaro is Program Director of the Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He concurrently holds a faculty position of Lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School. As Program Director he oversees the Center's activities in cross-community education among the practitioner communities of stability and relief operations (the armed forces, government civilian agencies, non-governmental organizations, and inter-governmental organizations). His experience and interests are in conflict management and peace operations, the U.S. interagency process, political-military planning, and post-conflict reconstruction.

Mr. Vaccaro joined the University in 2003 after many years in U.S. Government policy-advisory and implementation positions in Washington. Among other positions, he served as Director for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs on the National Security Council Staff at the White House (1998-2000) and as Director of the Office for Peace Operations in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (2000-2003). He has also served in positions at a research think tank and as an officer in the U.S. Army (1990-1993) with service in Somalia as a member of the 10th Mountain Light Infantry Division.

Mr. Vaccaro's publications and research focus on operational strategies for peace enforcement, policing within stability operations, interagency political-military planning, and training of civilians and armed forces for contingency operations. His BA and MA are from Stanford University in international relations and international policy studies, respectively.