Brig. Gen. USAF (Ret) Robert Spalding is the former White House National Security Council senior director for strategic planning and served in senior positions of strategy and diplomacy within the Defense and State Departments for more than 26 years. He is the founder and CEO of SEMPRE.  

Dr. Spalding has served in senior positions of strategy and diplomacy within the Defense and State Departments for more than 26 years, retiring as brigadier general. He was the chief architect for the widely praised 2017 National Security Strategy Council. He has written extensively on national security matters. His academic papers and editorial work are frequently published and cited, both nationally and internationally.  

He is a former China strategist for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, as well as having served as the senior defense official and defense attaché in Beijing.  

Dr. Spalding was a Military Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an Olmsted Scholar, a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and a Senior Associate Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society of London. He holds seats om the boards of Jamestown Foundation, Military Cyber Professional Association, and is an advisor to the Institute of Political Innovation. He holds a doctorate in economics and mathematics from the University of Missouri.