Biography
Tom Goffus is an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). He has provided senior leadership in Congress, the Pentagon, and NATO, served in the U.S. military, and advised senior leaders on policy and operational issues at the State Department and the National Security Council.
Most recently, Tom was the assistant secretary general for operations and the NATO Secretary General’s special coordinator for counterterrorism. As the senior civilian responsible for oversight of NATO operations, he provided strategic and operational insights to the NATO Secretary General and the Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, and was responsible for defense of the alliance, security assistance for NATO’s 35 partners, and oversight of more than $6 billion of assistance to Ukraine. In cooperation with NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation, he set up and provided senior guidance to direct and refine the NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis Training and Education Center to harness lessons learned from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Prior to NATO, Tom was policy director for the Senate Armed Services Committee where he coordinated efforts on national security strategy, force posture, capabilities, as well as Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security. He also served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy and director for strategic and Eastern European affairs for the national security staff at the White House.
Tom is a retired U.S. Air Force command pilot with over 3,000 hours in the F-15, T-37, and T-6 aircraft and served as a squadron and group commander. He is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy with master’s degrees from the University of Washington and the U.S. Naval War College.
Currently, Tom is executive partner, global security, for Elara Nova and advises government and industry to help create and implement innovative solutions to key operational challenges to national security in domains such as space, air and missile defense, data-sharing and multidomain operations, and drone and counter-drone operations. He also serves as a member of the Atlantic Council’s Reimagining European Defense and Innovation Task Force.