William C. Martel

Martel died of cancer on January 12, 2015, at the age of 59.

In 2014, Martel was the recipient of the Fletcher School’s James L. Paddock Award for excellence in teaching.

Martel served as an adviser to the National Security Council, to the U.S. Air Force, and to Governor Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign, as co-chair of Romney's Russia Working Group.

He also served as an adviser to the National Security Council, and as a foreign policy advisor in Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in 2011–12, as a specialist for Russian affairs.

Speaking of Faisal Shahzad in 2010, he said: "This may suggest we are moving from the 'A' team in recruits to the 'B' team or even the 'C' team."

In 2008, he hailed Bush's announcement that he would cut the length of new tours in Iraq, saying: "In a war military, you have to cut corners to meet objectives. Progress comes in small doses." The Christian Science Monitor quoted Martel in 2008, saying of al-Qaeda's recruitment of Americans: "It's an immensely adaptive organization", while adding that it could potentially make it more open to penetration by western spies. "It could make it easier for us to understand what they're doing, and why," said Martel.

Speaking in 2006 about targeted killings as opposed to attempting to capture perpetrators, he said: "It's a pretty dicey proposition capturing somebody. You can't do a snatch and grab casually." In terms of domestic law, he said: "It is permissible to attack individuals who are heads of [either state or non-state] organizations in combat against the United States." Commenting in 2006 on the terrorist National Intelligence Estimates' declassified intelligence assessment on terrorism, Martel found it to be simplistic and not very useful. "I was stunned at how pedestrian it was," Martel said.

He served on the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (2001–02) and was a Member of the Editorial Board of the Naval War College Review. He was also the principal investigator on space policy study with research support from MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. in 2005 he joined the faculty of Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where he continued to teach until his death in 2015.

Martel was the Director and Founder of the U.S. Air Force Center for Strategy and Technology from 1993–99, and Associate Professor of International Relations at the Air War College during the same years. From 1999–2005 he was Professor of National Security Affairs and Chair of Space Technology and Policy Studies at the Naval War College.

Martel pursued a B.A. from St. Anselm College, graduating in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He later also became a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, from 1991–93.

William C. Martel (July 15, 1955 – January 12, 2015) was a scholar who specialized in studying the leadership and policymaking processes in organizations, strategic planning, cyberwarfare and militarisation of space, and technology innovation. He taught at the U.S. Air War College and U.S. Naval War College, and performed research for DARPA and the RAND Corporation. He later become Associate Professor of International Security Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, a position he held until his death in 2015.

Martel was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on July 15, 1955, a son of Dr. Cyprien Martel and Mrs. G. Eunice (Coughlin) Martel.