Franklin C. Miller is a foreign policy and nuclear defense policy expert. Miller served 31 years in the U.S. government, including the Department of State, the Department of Defense and a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush. He is principal at the Washington-based international business advisory firm The Scowcroft Group.
Education
Miller attended Williams College and graduated in 1972 with highest honors in political science and honors in history. Following graduation from Williams, he joined the U.S. Navy and served three years on board USS Joseph Hewes as communications officer and then as the ship's anti-submarine warfare officer. He earned the surface warfare officer designator while on the Hewes. Following active duty, Miller attended Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, earning a Master of Public Affairs degree in 1977. During his time as a graduate student, Miller served in the naval reserve and was assigned to the Philadelphia-based destroyer USS Johnston.
Career
Immediately following graduation from the Woodrow Wilson School, Miller joined the U.S. Department of State as a political-military affairs officer, a post he held until the summer of 1979. He then joined the Theater Nuclear Policy Office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a post he held for two years. In late 1981 he was promoted to head OSD's Strategic Forces Policy office. He held this post for eight years, during which he had unusual influence on the evolution of US deterrence policy and on US nuclear targeting policy. During this period he also forged new and important relationships between the Department of Defense and the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. Miller has been called "the father and the architect of the U.S.- U.K. dialogue on nuclear weapons policy." In 1985, under Miller's leadership as Director of nuclear targeting for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Miller constructed the open and close collaboration between the British and American military on nuclear defense and oversaw its expansion and evolution for two decades. He played a significant role in the 1998 and 2004 extensions of the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement. Miller was promoted to the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy in the fall of 1989. In addition to continuing his pioneering work in nuclear deterrence and targeting policy and in US-UK interaction, Mr. Miller played a significant role in the completion of the START 1 treaty, in the 1991 Presidential Nuclear Initiatives, and in the creation of the START 2 treaty. In 1993 Miller was promoted to be the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. In September 1996 he became the Acting Assistant Secretary, a post he held for fourteen months. In November 1997, he became the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategy and Threat Reduction, a newly created organization. He became Acting Assistant Secretary for Strategy and Threat Reduction in October 2000 and held that post until January 20, 2001. During the period September 1996 through January 2001 Miller served concurrently as chairman of NATO's nuclear policy committee, the "High Level Group". In late January 2001 Miller joined the White House staff as a special assistant to President George W. Bush and as the senior director for defense policy and arms control on the National Security Council staff. He retired from the U.S. Government in March 2005 with an accumulated 31 years of federal service. In Dan Plesch of the Royal United Services Institute called Miller a "high priest of nuclear theology," for his backing of a traditional deterrence policy the number of warheads the UK and US maintain should be calculated according to the number of potential targets. Miller has argued that the President has almost single authority to initiate a nuclear attack since the Secretary of Defense is required to verify the order, but cannot legally veto it. Miller's first post-government employment was as a vice president with The Cohen Group, a Washington-based international business consulting firm. In March 2008 he became a senior counselor at Cohen Group and also began practicing on his own. In August 2010 he left Cohen Group to become a principal at the Scowcroft Group. He also holds positions as a non-resident senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and as a Director of the Atlantic Council of the United States. He serves as the chairman of the board of directors of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory and is also on the board of EADS North America. Miller also serves pro bono on a number of U.S. Government advisory boards. Germany Opens Pandora's Box, by Miller, George Robertson, and Kori Schake,, was written in opposition to a German proposal that the UK and US withdraw all nuclear weapons from Germany. Wolfgang Ischinger and Ulrich Weisser supported the removal, arguing that it would be "a grave mistake" for NATO members "to cling to the Cold War perception of Russia as a potential aggressor."
