Douglas Fears

Commander Douglas M. Fears is the U.S. Coast Guard fellow in the CSIS International Security Program. He reports to CSIS from sea duty as commanding officer in USCGC Diligence (WMEC 616). He is a native of Maryland’s Eastern Shore and has served in seven ships, commanding two of them. At sea, he served in USCGC Taney (WHEC 37) on the North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea; USCGC Basswood (WLB 388) on the Western Pacific Ocean and Philippine Sea; USS Vincennes (CG 49) on the Eastern and Western Pacific Oceans, Sea of Japan, and South China Sea; USS Leahy (CG 16) on the Western Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, North Arabian Gulf, Straits of Malacca, and Straits of Hormuz; USCGC Sitkinak (WPB 1329) on the Straits of Florida, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico; USCGC Thetis (WMEC 910) on the Straits of Florida, North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico; and USCGC Diligence (WMEC 616) on the North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Straits of Florida. In over a decade of sea service, he has conducted drug interdiction, alien migrant interdiction, search and rescue, fisheries enforcement, homeland security, and defense operations. Ashore, Commander Fears specialized in Coast Guard operations, congressional liaison, the federal budgeting process, and the federal policy coordinating process. He served as a command center controller in the Thirteenth Coast Guard District in Seattle, assistant Coast Guard liaison to the U.S. House of Representatives, and program reviewer for the law enforcement, counterterrorism, Maritime Domain Awareness, and command and control architecture programs in the Coast Guard Headquarters Office of Budget and Programs. His most recent staff assignment was at the White House as director for Central America and the Caribbean Basin on the National Security Council staff, where he coordinated U.S. policy toward Cuba, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Commander Fears is a designated Coast Guard cutterman, a designated Navy surface warfare officer, a licensed master mariner, and has been awarded over 40 personal, unit, campaign, and service awards. He was also awarded the 1997 U.S. Navy League’s Captain David H. Jarvis Award for Inspirational Leadership and the 2005 U.S. Coast Guard Academy Alumni Achievement Award. He is an alumnus of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, the U.S. Naval War College, and Harvard University, with a B.S. in government, an M.A. in national security and strategic studies, and a M.P.A., respectively. Commander Fears was recently selected for promotion to the rank of captain.