Director, Homeland Defense and Security Issues, Center for Strategic Leadership, Army War College
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
Email: bert.tussing@us.army.mil
Phone: (717) 245-4516; (717) 226-4576
Areas of Interest
Role of the military
Border security
Homeland security education
Biography
Professor Tussing was born in Portsmouth, VA on 24 Mar 1953, the son of a career Naval Officer. He graduated with honors from The Citadel in 1975 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. During a 24 year career in the Marines, Professor Tussing served operationally with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing; the 2nd Marine Division; Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One; Marine Helicopter Squadron One (where he was designated a Presidential Command Pilot); and with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable). Over the course of his career he participated in multiple humanitarian relief exercises in the Caribbean; Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada; operations as a part of the Multinational Force in Beirut; Operations Provide Promise and Deny Flight in Bosnia; and the final withdrawal of U.S. forces from Somalia.
Following his operational assignments, Tussing was assigned to the Pentagon where he served as Marine Corps Analyst to the Secretary of the Navy in the Office of Program Appraisal. While there, he participated in the Secretary of the Navy’s focus group for the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces, and served as a consultant on the Defense Science Board on “Tactics and Techniques for the 21st Century.” Professor Tussing was subsequently selected for a Brookings Legislative Fellowship, through which he served on the staff of the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s Personnel Subcommittee. Following the fellowship, he assumed duties as Deputy Legislative Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Professor Tussing joined the United States Army War College’s Center for Strategic Leadership in October of 1999. His focus areas include Homeland Defense, Homeland Security, Terrorism, and Civil-Military Relations. Since the spring of 2001 he has led and served in multiple forums and studies focused on homeland defense, homeland security, and military support of civil authorities. He has served on three Defense Science Boards and has hosted, organized and facilitated numerous symposiums and workshops dedicated to domestic security in support of the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs, the United States Northern Command, and the National Guard Bureau. In 2006 he initiated the formation of the Consortium for Homeland Defense and Security in America, partnering the Army War College with George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Heritage Foundation, and providing for an annual forum dedicated to addressing the challenges and complexities of domestic defense in the modern era. Professor Tussing is a senior fellow of George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute; a member of the Board of Experts for UC-Irvines’ Center for Unconventional Security Affairs; on the Homeland Defense and Security Advisory Board of Penn State University; a steering committee member of the Homeland Security/Defense Education Consortium Association; and a senior fellow of Long Island University’s Homeland Security Management Institute. In December 2009 he completed an appointment to the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, wherein he served in advising the development and execution of the Department’s Congressionally-mandated Quadrennial Homeland Security Review.
Professor Tussing was a Distinguished Graduate of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and a fellow in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies (Seminar XXI). He is a graduate (with Highest Distinction) of the United States Naval War College, from which he was awarded a Masters Degree in National Security and Strategic Studies; and the United States Army War College, from which he received a Masters Degree in Strategic Studies. His personal decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal with a Combat V, the Navy Commendation Medal, the Presidential Service Badge, the Department of the Army Achievement Medal for Civilian Service, and the Department of the Army Superior Civilian Service Award. In December 2009 he was awarded the U.S. Army War College’s Elihu Root Chair of Military Studies.
Professor Tussing is married to the former Dianne Day, his wife of 34 years. They have two daughters; Amber Christine and Crystal Dianne.
