Linton Brooks, a career naval officer and former head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, on Wednesday received the Johnny Foster Lifetime Achievement Award at the ExchangeMonitor’s 2017 Nuclear Deterrence Summit.
The award, named in honor of the longtime Energy and Defense departments hand who directed the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the 1960s, recognizes individuals whose lives and work have been “dedicated to serve the greater good and security of the nation, not only as a public servant but also as a citizen, to ensure the credibility and viability of the U.S. nuclear deterrence and for leadership that continually inspires others to achieve extraordinary goals.”
Brooks said he was honored to be recognized alongside previous Johnny Foster Award recipients: Don Cook, former NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs; Troy Wade, former assistant energy secretary for defense programs; Air Force Gen. Larry Welch (ret.), who served as head of Strategic Air Command and Air Force chief of staff; and Foster himself.
“It is a pleasure because I am being recognized in front of so many friends and colleagues with whom I have worked over the years,” Brooks said during the award ceremony. “And it is a pleasure because it validates what I have chosen to do with my life: try to ensure the security of the United States. I don’t know if my accomplishments deserve to be honored, but I do know that my vocation does.”
Brooks’ long résumé encompasses five decades in national security, including 30 years in the U.S. Navy, lead negotiator for the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, assistant director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, NNSA deputy administrator for nuclear nonproliferation, and then agency administrator from July 2002 to January 2007. In that position he led the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch’s work to sustain the U.S. nuclear arsenal and promote nuclear nonproliferation around the world.
Brooks currently serves as a senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a distinguished research fellow at National Defense University.
