Richard H. Shultz Jr., Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of International Security Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts, passed away at his home in Medford, Massachusetts on Nov. 22. He was 78.

Over his 42 years at The Fletcher School, Shultz was one of the most influential teachers and scholars in security studies, authored some two dozen books and monographs, and was a beloved mentor to thousands of U.S. and international students, practitioners, and academics.

He was born on October 25, 1947, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the youngest child of Carmel Vetere and Richard H. Shultz Sr. Growing up in a steel mill town and having worked on the Reading Railroad as a young man, he realized that there was a larger, more interesting world beyond the streets of his childhood.

Under the guidance of his high school football coach Tony Cernugal, Shultz developed into a promising player. His talents on the field provided an opportunity to pursue higher education, with Shultz ultimately attending the University of Richmond, where he studied political science and continued playing the game he loved.

He pursued PhD studies at Miami University, graduating in 1976. His dissertation, The Origins and Development of U.S. Counterinsurgency Strategy: The Vietnam Case Study, chaired by David S. McLellan, showed his early passion for the study of internal conflicts and irregular wars.

In 1983, Shultz joined the faculty of The Fletcher School as an associate professor of international politics working alongside his mentor and close friend, Professor Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr., who directed the International Security Studies Program (ISSP) from 1987 to 1989.

ISSP was founded in 1971, a time when U.S. college campuses were deeply divided over the Vietnam War, as the first graduate program on security studies in the United States outside of the military war colleges. The initial grant proposal argued, "Paradoxically, at a time when an understanding of political-military security has never been more important, such issues are often ignored in American education or actually shunned in revulsion against the factor of force in international affairs."

A Foundational Class in the Role of Force

Shultz started teaching the field's foundational course, The Role of Force in International Politics, in 1983. He demanded his students arrive at 7:30 a.m. twice a week for his lectures and Socratic recitations on military power, the causes of war, national security policy and strategy, power in the 21st century, and the impact of technologies on the conduct of war.

The course had the highest enrollment at The Fletcher School year after year, and Role of Force alumni regularly commented with pride on having endured the early hours and the weighty reading list.

Army officer in the Fletcher PhD program

An Army officer in the PhD program wrote of his appreciation that for Shultz, "violence was not something to be idolized or placed on a pedestal. It was not something to glorify, nor something to dismiss as inherently evil. It simply was. It persists. And it remains a force we must reckon with as academics, practitioners, and policymakers."

Over the years, Shultz developed courses on internal conflict and irregular war; the origins, conduct, and termination of war; 21st century intelligence and national security; and crisis management.

In his final semester, he crafted a new seminar, Comparative Civil-Military Relations, to examine how civilian and military leaders negotiate the role of the military in the political arena and the role of civilians as military overseers.

"Professor Shultz was relentlessly committed to his craft, while equally dedicated to his students," said Samantha Hubner, F22. "In fact, what struck me most as a new student-particularly as a woman under 30 studying security-was how amidst teaching all the traditional thinkers and theorists, he also consistently elevated the critical but underrepresented perspectives in international security that shape security today."

"Professor Shultz touched the lives and careers of thousands of people with his wisdom, kindness, and grit," said Ben Madnick, F23. "Some of the world's most skilled warriors, diplomats, politicians, advocates, scholars, and entrepreneurs have him to thank for helping shape their success. Words can't describe the void he leaves, only attempted to be filled by those that he led and taught along the way."

"ISSP and Fletcher have developed generations of security leaders around the world," said Rachel Goretsky, F22. "Civilians and military. Women and men. So many of us would not be where we are today without Professor Shultz. I am thankful I was able to speak to him a few weeks ago and recently spend time with others who really knew and loved him. I know I am nowhere near alone in saying we are going to miss him, but we certainly can't say it enough."

The Study of Conflict

Shultz authored, co-authored, and edited 26 books and monographs, as well as numerous academic articles, on the study of counterinsurgency, irregular warfare, intelligence studies, special operations, and counterterrorism.

After the Department of Defense declassified its archives about U.S. activities in North Vietnam, he was invited to the Pentagon to write the first history in The Secret War Against Hanoi: Kennedy's and Johnson's Use of Spies, Saboteurs, and Covert Warriors in North Vietnam. Later, working in collaboration with the Marine Corps History Division and with its oral history collection, he published The Marines Take Anbar: The Four-Year Fight Against Al Qaeda.

In Transforming US Intelligence for Irregular War: Task Force 714 in Iraq, he detailed how JSOC's Task Force 714 was the first component of the U.S. military to transform into an intelligence-driven organization capable of analyzing massive amounts of intelligence-"big data"-through the adoption and employment of state-of-the-art data integration systems.

His latest book manuscript was written at the behest of DoD's Algorithmic Warfare Team to detail Project Maven, the Pentagon's project to employ artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision for fighting more effectively against ISIS, al Qaeda, and their geographically dispersed proxies.

He sought out opportunities to teach alongside military and defense practitioners at U.S. military schools, and held three chairs: The Olin Distinguished Professorship of National Security Studies at the U.S. Military Academy; Secretary of the Navy Senior Research Fellow at the U.S. Naval War College; and Brigadier General H. L. Oppenheimer Chair of War-fighting Strategy, U.S. Marine Corps. He was concurrently a senior fellow at the U.S. Special Operations Command's Joint Special Operations University.

A Mentor to More Than 1,000 Students

Passionate about experiential student learning in and beyond the classroom, Shultz assumed the directorship of International Security Studies Program in 1989 and supervised the International Security Studies curriculum as part of Fletcher's interdisciplinary model of learning.

He nurtured the U.S. Military Fellows program, which welcomes mid-career practitioners from every armed service each year to study, conduct research, and interact with current students. He led or co-led the Simulex and Red Team simulations that provided students with the opportunity to experience crisis management. From 1997 to 2021 he chaired or served as a reader on 92 doctoral dissertation committees-a number that rose to more than 100 by 2025.

Shultz had great affection for his students. First-semester students and alumni of 40 years describe his ability to connect with each student across more than 80 countries and walks of life and how he would actively encourage them to come meet with him. Eventually he counted among his former students heads of state, ministers, ambassadors, and secretaries of defense.

Shultz was a proud and loving father of his son Nick, a Tufts graduate who studied finance and entrepreneurial leadership, who pursued a career in finance in New York. Their shared love and passionate support for the Boston Red Sox remained constant throughout both of their lives, going to dozens of games.

Shultz was devoted to his wife of 32 years, Casey Chapman; they married in the Goddard Chapel on the Tufts campus. He is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews and numerous friends and colleagues.

If you would like to contribute a memory of or a tribute to Richard Shultz, please fill out this form. Reflections from the community will be shared with his family and published on the Fletcher website.

Gifts in honor of Shultz can be made to the Richard H. Shultz Scholarship Fund, or in lieu of a donation, his family suggests doing a random act of kindness while thinking of him.

A celebration of Shultz's life will be held on campus on Friday, January 30, 2026, at 2 p.m., to which the entire community is invited. RSVP herefor the event.

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