The Honorable R. Clarke Cooper

Founder and President @ Guard Hill House LLC
  • The Honorable R. Clarke Cooper, Founder and President, Guard Hill House LLC; Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State (2019-2021)

R. Clarke Cooper is founder and President of Guard Hill House, LLC, is a Nonresident
Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council, serves on the Board of Governors of DACOR and
the DACOR Bacon House Foundation, and is a member of the Virginia LGBTQ Advisory Board. Cooper has over two decades of experience in diplomatic, intelligence, and military roles. He served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs from 2019 – 2021, where he led a global enterprise of 600 personnel, and on an annual basis oversaw $170 billion in arms sales and $16 billion in security assistance. In 2021, he received the
Superior Honor Award for coordination and implementation of the security cooperation elements of the Abraham
Accords in support of the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the Kingdom of Morocco
normalizing relations with the State of Israel. In previous diplomatic posts, Cooper served as U.S. Alternate

Representative to the United Nations Security Council, U.S. Delegate to the United Nations Administration &
Budget Committee, Senior Advisor in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and Advisor at U.S. Embassy Baghdad.

His active-duty military assignments included tours overseas tours with Joint Special Operations Command, U.S.
Africa Command, Special Operations Command Africa, Joint Special Operations Task Force Trans-Sahara, and
Special Operations Command Central.

An outdoor enthusiast, he served as Assistant Director of the National Park Service early in his career
and attained the Eagle Scout rank in his youth. Cooper is a graduate of Florida State University, an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executives in National and International Security program, and a postgraduate degree candidate at the University of Oxford where he rows crew for St. Hugh’s College. He is married to fellow combat veteran, Lieutenant Colonel Michael J. Marin, who serves at the Department of Defense.