Frederick Lorenz

Frederick “Rick” Lorenz grew up in New York City and obtained his undergraduate and law degrees from Marquette University. He served a career in the US Marine Corps as a judge advocate, retiring as a colonel in 1998. He obtained an LLM (With Highest Honors) from George Washington University in Land Use Management and Control and practiced environmental/land use law between 1982 and 1991. In 1992 he joined the First Marine Expeditionary Force and was the senior legal advisor for the United Nations authorized military intervention in Somalia. He returned there as senior legal advisor for the UN evacuation in 1995. In 1996 he served in Bosnia as a senior legal advisor for the NATO implementation force, and went on to teach Political Science at the National Defense University. In 1998 he spent a year as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in St Petersburg, Russia, teaching courses in international law, environmental law and US foreign policy. In 2000 he served as a United Nations Legal Affairs officer in Kosovo, working in the UN Civil Administration. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Jackson School of International Studies (JSIS), University of Washington (UW), his courses include Data, Science and Diplomacy and International Humanitarian Law (the Law of Armed Conflict).

He has a number of connections to Canada, having served in the field with Canadian officers in Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo. He was formerly a lecturer at the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Nova Scotia and is now Affiliate Faculty at the Canadian Studies Center at UW. He was part of a project in 2000 that produced the book “Strengthening the United Nations and Enhancing War Prevention,” working with the Honorable Phillipe Kirsch, Q.C. and initiated in Canada. His current courses for the Masters of Applied International Relations (MAAIS) at the UW include a component on Arctic Sovereignty and International Law.  He resides with his wife Joan in Tacoma, Washington.