Robert (Bob) Harward was born in Newport, Rhode Island to a US Navy family and spent his formative years in Iran, where he graduated from the Tehran American School. His father was a Navy captain and advised the Iranian Navy from 1968 to 1979. At the behest of his father, Bob enlisted in the Navy to attend the Naval Academy Prep School. He continued his education at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, graduating in 1979 after earning a Bachelor of Science. He subsequently attended the Naval War College for his master's in International Security and Strategy. Harward began his military career as a Surface Warfare officer, navigating ships around the world, and then transferred to the Naval Special Warfare community, serving as a Navy SEAL for over thirty-two years. He held various leadership positions throughout his forty-year naval career, commanding a plethora of combat units in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, and Yemen, as well as a Nation Building Task Force in Afghanistan where he was responsible for building Rule of Law.