Erik Leklem - Institute for Security Governance

Faculty

Mr. Erik Leklem is a Regional Program Lead (RPL) for the Indo-Pacific in the Advising & Consulting Division at the Institute for Security Governance (ISG). He manages security sector advisory and consulting teams conducting projects with Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, and other countries in Asia.

Prior to joining ISG, Mr. Leklem was a civil servant in the US Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations for over 17 years. At OSD, he focused on security cooperation, Indo-Pacific security affairs, strategy and planning, cyber capacity building, and homeland defense issues. He was also involved in numerous human capital improvement and organizational reform efforts within OSD. From 2015 - 2016, he was posted to the Office of Defense Cooperation within US Embassy in Indonesia. There, he oversaw defense management programs and conducted advisory efforts with the Indonesian Ministry of Defense and military services. From 2011-2012, he volunteered to serve as the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Minister of Defense for Strategy and Policy in the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan, as part of NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan. Mr. Leklem has worked at US Indo-Pacific Command (J-3) and US Southern Command (J-9), and was a Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of State to support the 2009 Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. As a Navy civil servant, he focused on red teaming, maritime strategic planning, naval readiness analysis, and maritime counterterrorism.

Mr. Leklem has been an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University and has lectured at numerous foreign and US military war colleges and universities. He has written for Task & Purpose, the San Jose Mercury News, Jane's Intelligence Review, Jane's Pointer, Arms Control Today, and Real Clear World, as well as published on the topic of security cooperation in the Handbook for International Negotiation (2015) and the National Defense University volume: Effective, Legitimate, Secure: Insights for Defense Institution Building (2017). He is a Fellow of the US-Japan Leadership Program and the Truman National Security Project. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland (MA in Public Policy) and the University of Oregon, Robert D. Clark Honors College (BA in Political Science/English). His recent professional training has involved artificial intelligence concepts (AI), organizational applications for AI, and chatbot development. He lives in Oakland, California.