The Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point is pleased to announce that General (Ret) Joseph L. Votel will serve as its next Distinguished Chair. General (Ret) Votel, who served in the U.S. Army for 39 years, is the former Commander of U.S. Central Command, former Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, and former Commander of Joint Special Operations Command. His career included combat in Panama, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Notably, he led a 79-member coalition that successfully liberated Iraq and Syria from the Islamic State caliphate. Today, he is the president/CEO of Business Executives for National Security (BENS), a strategic advisor for Sierra Nevada Corporation, and a non-resident Distinguished Fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington as well as at the Belfer Center at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
General (Ret) Votel, a 1980 graduate of the United States Military Academy, is a longtime friend of the CTC and previously served as its Class of 1987 Senior Fellow. The Combating Terrorism Center is honored he is continuing with the team as its fifth Distinguished Chair, and it looks forward to his continued leadership, guidance, and support over the coming years.
