Linton Wells II (born 1946) is an American public servant and educator who served a total of 51 years in government service.

He wrote many books, articles, and white papers on matters of national security, including important texts related to the use of American military capabilities in global humanitarian operations.

His expertise focused on the strategic impacts of technological change and on building resilience to natural and man-made disasters as issues of US national security.

He shaped, over five decades of public service, current US Department of Defense directives that link policy and technology with public-private cooperation.

A full roster of his shipboard service includes: Ashore he served in the Pentagon and on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations (OP 090R).

During his career he acquired experience in operations analysis with particular expertise in the Pacific, Indian Ocean and Middle Eastern affairs through the lens of Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C3I)[18] Wells served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1977 to 1980 and from 1991 to 2007, with his final position being that of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Networks and Information Integration).

He is the author of a well-known 2001 memo on the “unpredictable nature of great power relations” that has been cited by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.