Stephen J. Hadley, who received a bachelor's degree in government from Cornell University in 1969, has been appointed national security adviser by President George W. Bush. The president announced the appointment Nov. 16; it does not require Senate approval. Hadley is the second Cornellian to be named to the post in the past eight years. In 1996 President Clinton appointed Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, Class of 1967, as national security adviser.

Hadley, 57, was appointed assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser in 2001. He previously served as a senior foreign and defense policy adviser to Gov. Bush during the 2000 Presidential Campaign and worked in the Bush-Cheney transition on the National Security Council. Prior to that position, he was a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Shea & Gardner and a principal in The Scowcroft Group Inc., an international consulting firm.

"Stephen is a very intelligent, very able person and a terrific administrator," said Walter LaFeber, the Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor of History, of his former student. "He's got a lot of integrity, and of the various new appointments in the Bush administration, this is one of the best."

As a Cornell undergraduate, Hadley was active as a member of the Phi Kappa Psi, fraternity, the Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma national honor societies, The Quill and Dagger Society and the Cornell Glee Club. He also was a student member of the Faculty Committee on Student Affairs and served as chairman of the Scheduling Coordination and Activities Review Board (SCARB), among other activities.

Before joining the Bush team, Hadley served as the assistant secretary of defense for international security policy from 1989 to 1993. In that position, he guided defense policy toward NATO and Western Europe, on nuclear weapons and ballistic missile defense, and arms control. Hadley also served as Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney's representative in talks led by Secretary of State James Baker that resulted in the START I and START II treaties. Hadley previously served in a variety of other capacities in the defense and national security fields, including serving from 1986 to 1987 as counsel to the special review board established by President Reagan to inquire into U.S. arms sales to Iran (the "Tower Commission"), as a member of the National Security Council staff under President Ford from 1974 to 1977, and as an analyst for the comptroller of the Department of Defense from 1972 to 1974.

Hadley has been a member of the Department of Defense Policy Board, the National Security Advisory Panel to the director of Central Intelligence, and the board of trustees of Analytical Services Inc. ("ANSER"). His professional legal practice focused on business problems of U.S. and foreign corporations, particularly as they involved international business and regulatory and strategy issues. He received a law degree from Yale Law School in 1972.