Mr. William K. Lietzau is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Policy. The Department’s Rule of Law and Humanitarian Policy office has consolidated under his leadership. He is responsible for developing and coordinating global policy guidance regarding rule of law initiatives and the detention of captured enemy forces. Mr. Lietzau earned his B.S. in Political Science from the United States Naval Academy and his J.D. from Yale University. He also holds an LL.M. from the Judge Advocate General’s School, U.S. Army and an M.S. in National Security Law from the National War College. Prior to his appointment in the Department of Defense, he was a Marine Corps officer who served primarily as a judge advocate.
Mr. Lietzau also has served on several United States delegations in multilateral treaty negotiations including those adopting the Terrorist Bombing Convention, the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines, the Second Protocol to the Hague Cultural Property Convention and the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court. He led the United States negotiating team responsible for defining war crimes for the International Criminal Court. He has also taught international law as an adjunct professor in Georgetown University Law Center’s Master of Laws program and published several articles on international, criminal and constitutional law subjects.