April 13, 2026
William Potter
I was deeply saddened by the passing of General Robert Gard, a remarkable man and a close friend and benefactor of CNS.
CNS event honoring President Robert Gard
Robert and I first met in 1989 when, as president, he recruited me to what was then known as the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS). At that time, he provided me with a tiny Quonset hut that doubled as the Center for Soviet Studies and the newly created Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS).
Robert was a combat veteran, an Army Lt. General, a Harvard PhD, whose prize-winning dissertation dealt with nuclear issues, and a tireless advocate of arms control and nonproliferation. During his 11-year tenure at MIIS he fostered an environment in which innovation was rewarded, including the utilization of advanced foreign language skills and new open-source tools and technologies to monitor international nuclear and missile proliferation developments. By minimizing bureaucratic impediments, he enabled the center to grow rapidly and to recruit many of the brightest international nonproliferation scholars and diplomats.
Robert was a man of tremendous charisma and foresight who, more than anyone else, made it possible to build CNS into a global institution and to introduce a new graduate subfield of nonproliferation studies.
He lived for nearly 100 years, and his character and accomplishments will be remembered even longer.
