Fletcher professor and U.S. Army colonel appointed to new role
The Fletcher School at Tufts University has appointed Abigail Linnington, Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr. Professor of International Security and Associate Dean of Curriculum, as the new Director of the International Security Studies Program. Linnington has led the program in an interim capacity since November of 2025.
In this position, Professor Linnington is responsible for all aspects of ISSP’s co-curricular and programmatic activities, with a focus on developing professionals able to anticipate and manage security, defense, conflict, and conflict resolution issues in the challenging and complex global political-military security setting. This includes leading the Military Fellows program, which hosts senior U.S. military officers who attend Fletcher in lieu of the war colleges and provide the Fletcher community with insights into serving in the U.S. Armed Services. The ISSP director role was previously held by Professor Linnington’s colleague, mentor, and teacher, the late Professor Richard H. Shultz, Jr., and prior to that the late Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr.—the namesake of the endowed professorship she was awarded as the inaugural holder in 2025.
Professor Linnington, F04, FG13, earned her master’s and PhD from Fletcher, and her bachelor’s in international relations from West Point. She joined Fletcher’s faculty in 2019 as a Professor of Practice in International Security Studies after 25 years of service in the U.S. Army as a military strategist and aviator, retiring at the rank of Colonel. In 2022, she received the James L. Paddock Teaching Award from Fletcher students for her excellence teaching courses on national security decision making, strategy, civil resistance, and security sector reform. She was appointed Fletcher’s Associate Dean of Curriculum in 2024. Prior to joining the Fletcher faculty, Professor Linnington taught at National Defense University in Washington, DC where she was a senior fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies and visiting faculty at two of the war colleges, the Eisenhower School and the College of International Security Affairs. She also taught international relations and comparative politics at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point.
Professor Linnington began her career as a rated aviator in the OH-58 Kiowa and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and commanded Army units in the XVIII Airborne Corps and the 3rd Infantry Division (Savannah, Georgia), and Eighth U.S. Army (Republic of Korea). As an Army strategist, she helped create an interagency task force for rule of law initiatives and advised several top commanders of the International Security Assistance Force while deployed to Afghanistan. She led policy analysis and speechwriting for the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, the Army’s highest-ranking officer. As an advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, she guided policy reviews of U.S. war plans related to special operations, global transportation, and European security during the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. As a special assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of the Chairman’s Action Group for two years, then Colonel Linnington supported the Chairman in his role as senior military advisor to the President, Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, and Congress during the Obama and Trump administrations.
For her service, Professor Linnington has received the Defense Superior Service Medal (two awards), the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, and the 2017 Tufts Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award, among other honors.
“With her impressive blend of academic experience, strategy, military service, and leadership, I am confident Professor Linnington will continue ISSP’s legacy of excellence in preparing our students for the international security challenges of the 21st century,” said Dean Kelly Sims Gallagher.
Lean more about Fletcher’s International Security Studies Program.