Paul Angelo

Paul Angelo is a Managing Director at McLarty Associates, based in Washington, DC. He is an accomplished foreign policy leader, military veteran, and Latin America specialist with two decades of experience at the intersection of government, academia, and diplomacy. A seasoned communicator in English and Spanish, he advises multinational companies in a wide variety of sectors on Central America, the Andes, and the Caribbean.

 

Prior to joining McLarty, Paul served as the Director of the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies at the National Defense University. In this role, he managed complex interagency portfolios, produced influential scholarship, and led over 30 faculty and staff in strengthening strategic-level security and defense education in the Americas covering governance, human rights, transnational threats, climate resiliency, and cybersecurity/artificial intelligence policy.

 

Before his appointment to the Department of Defense as a senior civilian official, he was the Fellow for Latin America Studies and an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where he was also a Term Member from 2019 to 2025. His work at CFR focused on U.S.-Latin American relations, security assistance, instability in Venezuela and Central America, and transnational organized crime. During his tenure as an International Affairs Fellow, he represented the U.S. Department of State in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where he managed the ambassador’s security and justice portfolio.

 

His prior active-duty service in the Navy included tours with a United Kingdom-based North Atlantic Treaty Organization unit, aboard a guided-missile destroyer deployed to the Asia-Pacific, and as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he taught Spanish and Latin American politics courses. During his military career, Paul deployed to Colombia on three occasions over the course of more than a decade. He was directly responsible for the planning of interagency missions focused on improving the rule of law, security, and local governance in support of Plan Colombia.

 

Holding the rank of Commander, he continues to serve as a foreign area officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. In this capacity, he received a Meritorious Service Medal for the performance of his duties as the Executive Officer of a U.S. Southern Command support unit based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Further, he has advanced U.S. defense priorities across the globe in places such as Cape Verde, Colombia, Djibouti, Honduras, Italy, Mozambique, Panama, Spain, and Uruguay. In recognition of his contributions, the Guatemalan government awarded Paul the “Monja Blanca” (White Nun Orchid) medal (second class) in 2022 for meritorious service to the Guatemalan people. In 2025, the Spanish Society of International Studies welcomed him to the organization’s Council as a Member of Honor.

 

His board experience includes terms as a Presidential Appointee to the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors, as a member of the American Civil Liberties Union (Washington, DC affiliate) Board of Directors, and as Acting Chair of the Calcagno Scholarship Board.

 

Paul is the author of From Peril to Partnership: US Security Assistance and the Bid to Stabilize Colombia and Mexico (Oxford University Press, 2024), which received honorable mention for the 2025 American Political Science Association Robert Jervis Best International Security Book Award and was featured as recommended reading in The Economist. His written commentary has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Miami Herald, among other leading outlets.

 

Paul holds a Bachelor of Science in political science (with honors) from the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was a Harry S. Truman Scholar; a Master of Philosophy in Latin American studies (with distinction) from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a doctorate in politics from University College London.

Fellowship Project: As the rules-based international order strains under rising polarization and rampant disinformation, transitional justice mechanisms that help move societies from conflict to peace have seldom been more necessary. Yet, as the recent resurgence of hostilities in places such as Colombia, Haiti, and Sudan suggests, truth does not inevitably lead to reconciliation. Conventional peace-building tools often fall short because they fail to address root causes of violence. Sectarian cleavages, economic motives, and political incentives to exploit historical grievances often result in demands for criminal accountability long after offenders have disarmed. Amid a shifting architecture of U.S. global engagement, this project explores how the involvement of multilateral organizations, philanthropy, and the private sector, including the tech industry, can support institutional reforms in transitional justice scenarios that advance reconciliation and reform while preventing the recurrence of violence.