Dr. Gregory p. noone

Dr. Gregory P. Noone, Ph.D., J.D., is the Executive Director, a Senior Peace Fellow, and Senior Legal Advisor for the Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG). Dr. Noone currently co-leads the Sudan and Kenya programs, and serves as a Senior Legal Advisor for the Ukraine Accountability Initiative. Previously, he led the Yemen track two diplomacy team, and served as the Senior Legal Advisor for the Human Rights Documentation Solutions project. Dr. Noone has conducted PILPG justice system assessments in Uganda and Côte d’Ivoire as well as provided transitional justice assistance in post-Gaddafi Libya and to the Syrian opposition. Dr. Noone was also part of the international effort investigating the Myanmar government’s atrocities committed against their Rohingya population. He worked as an investigator in the refugee camps in Bangladesh and as one of the legal experts on the report’s findings. 

Dr. Noone also worked as a Senior Program Officer for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), an independent, nonpartisan federal institution created by the U.S. Congress to promote research, education, and training on the prevention, management and peaceful resolution of international conflicts. While at USIP, Noone received a Special Act Award for his work in Afghanistan. Dr. Noone is a retired Captain in the United States Navy with over 30 years of service as a judge advocate, held command three times, and completed multiple deployments. Dr. Noone served as the Commanding Officer of the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS) reserve unit and as the Commanding Officer of the Navy JAG International and Operational Law reserve unit as well as the Director of the Department of Defense’s Periodic Review Secretariat (PRS). Dr. Noone previously served on active duty as a judge advocate in the U.S. Navy. He held various positions in the Navy including the Head of the International Law Branch and the Foreign Military Rights Affairs Branch in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) International and Operational Law Division at the Pentagon. Dr. Noone also served at the DIILS, where he trained senior military, governmental and non-governmental civilian personnel in the Law of Armed Conflict, Human Rights and other international law topics, in over sixty countries (and has been to 97 countries). Most notably, he has trained members of the Iraqi National Congress, the post-genocide government in Rwanda, the post-Taliban government in Afghanistan, and civil society in the Sudan. Dr. Noone has also worked as a government prosecutor and a criminal defense counsel. Among his personal awards are the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and two Defense Meritorious Service Medals.  

He is a Brockton, Massachusetts native who received a B.A. in Political Science from Villanova University, an M.A. in International Affairs from The Catholic University of America, an M.D.S. (Master of Defence Studies) from The Royal Military College of Canada, a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, and a Ph.D. in Political Science (International Relations) from West Virginia University. Dr. Noone is also a graduate of the Canadian Forces College’s Joint Command and Staff Programme (JRCSP 12 and JCSP 36) where he served as the Senior Allied Officer. In 2012, Dr. Noone was appointed by the United Nations to an Independent Experts Panel to review the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight. Dr. Noone is the Director of the Fairmont State University National Security and Intelligence Program and a Professor of Political Science and Law. Dr. Noone was selected the 2012 West Virginia Professor of the Year. Dr. Noone is also an adjunct Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law and Case Western Reserve University School of Law where he has taught International Law, Genocide and Atrocity Crimes, International Humanitarian Law, Terrorism, and U.S. Military Law and Legal Policies. He also teaches National Security Law, and Leadership and Ethics in graduate programs at Boston College. 

He has published and presented articles on the Rwandan Genocide, the Law of Armed Conflict, the International Criminal Court, and Military Tribunals at numerous forums. Dr. Noone is the co-author (with Laurie R. Blank) of the widely used textbook: International Law and Armed Conflict: Fundamental Principles and Contemporary Challenges in the Law of War Second Edition (Aspen Publishing 2019). Together they also published the Concise Edition of this textbook (Aspen Publishing 2016) for use in military academies, war colleges, undergraduate universities and for foreign militaries. Dr. Noone is also the co-author (with Laurie R. Blank) of the Law of War Training: Resources for Military and Civilian Leaders derived from a multi-year project on military training programs in the law of war. Dr. Noone appears regularly as a commentator on international and national TV and radio.