Email | 
(202) 433-9654
Areas of Expertise: Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief; Stabilization & Reconstruction; Europe
Dr. Kurt Müller is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow with the Center for Complex Operations at the National Defense University. His career spans academic and operational spheres. Early in his Army Reserve career, he was a Foreign Area Officer, with early exposure to the Army Staff in Strategy, Plans, and Policy. He joined the Civil Affairs (CA) community after earning an M.M.A.S. in politico-military affairs at the Army Command and General Staff College. His Leavenworth thesis, published by CSIS with a foreword by then-Ambassador to the UN Vernon Walters, examined language needs in the military. The topic merged his civilian career interests with military education, and he moved from a staff position at the Modern Language Association to become chief operating officer of the National Council on Foreign Language and International Studies. His CA assignments include command of the 416th CA Bn, J3/CA for JTF 160, USAREUR CIMIC team chief and Command Language Program Manager at the 353rd CACOM, Special Functions Chief of the 304th CA Bde, and Civil Affairs Advisor to SACEUR and C9 at SHAPE. After his uniformed service, he became a CA subject-matter expert as a contractor supporting USSOCOM, exploring future operational concepts with a focus on command and control. He left SOCOM for the State Department, which hired him for the Civilian Response Corps. He has deployed four times in uniform and twice with State and has worked in Europe, the Caribbean, and Southwest and Central Asia. His presentations and publications have appeared in six languages. A graduate of the Army War College, his current assignment marks his second time as a fellow at NDU.