WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- The Board of Trustees of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Monday named retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston as a senior adviser at CSIS.
Ralston, who was the supreme allied commander for Europe from May 2000 until March, will work with the full range of CSIS programs, concentrating particularly on trans-Atlantic security issues.
As head of the U.S. European Command, Ralston was responsible for all U.S. military activities in 89 countries and territories covering more than 13 million square miles of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and involving the activities of all U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps forces operating within its area of responsibility. Ralston was the overall commander of approximately 65,000 troops from 39 NATO and other nations that participated in ongoing operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo in the late 1990s.
Before he assumed his position as allied supreme commander, Ralston served as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1996 to 2000, the nation's second highest-ranking military officer. He is also a highly decorated command pilot with more than 2,500 flying hours, including 147 combat missions over Laos and North Vietnam.
"Joe Ralston combines extraordinary skill as an airman and military strategist with vast experience in public policy and distinguished scholarship. We are fortunate to have the benefit of his association with the center. He will be a great asset to CSIS as we engage the foreign and security policy agenda facing the nation in the new century," said CSIS President and Chief Executive Officer John Hamre.
