Contributors

BJ Armstrong is an active duty Naval Aviator currently serving in the Pentagon. He is the 2013 Naval History & Heritage Command Samuel Eliot Morison Scholar and a research student with the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London where he is studying naval irregular warfare in the Age of Sail.  His book 21st Century Mahan: Sound Military Conclusions for the Modern Era is available from the Naval Institute Press.

Lt. General David W. Barno, USA (Ret.) is a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the School of International Service at American University and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center at the Atlantic Council. He was senior American commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2003–2005. Barno was a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He has published extensively and testified before Congress numerous times. He writes the Strategic Outpost column with Dr. Nora Bensahel.

J. Michael Barrett is the Principal at Diligent Innovations, a strategy consultancy for the national security and homeland security markets. A former Fulbright Scholar and Naval Intelligence Officer, Mike served as the Director of Strategy for the White House Homeland Security Council, an Intelligence Officer for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and Senior Analyst for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Nora Bensahel, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the School of International Service at American University and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center at the Atlantic Council. She is a widely published expert on U.S. defense policy, military operations and force structure; coalition and alliance operations; and leader development. Bensahel has held senior positions at the Center for a New American Security and RAND Corporation. She writes the Strategic Outpost column with General Dave Barno.

Claude Berube teaches at the United States Naval Academy where his courses have included Naval History, American Government, Intelligence & National Security, Terrorism, Emergent Naval Warfare, and Maritime Security Challenges.  He has worked at the Office of Naval Intelligence, on Capitol Hill for two U.S. Senators, and as a defense contractor.  He was a LEGIS fellow with The Brookings Institution and a maritime security studies fellow with The Heritage Foundation.  He is the author or co-author of four books and more than fifty articles.  An intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve, he has served at ONI, in Europe, and with Expeditionary Strike Group Five in the Persian Gulf.  He is currently writing his doctoral dissertation on Andrew Jackson’s navy.

Jason H. Campbell is an Associate Policy Analyst at the RAND Corporation, where he focuses on counterinsurgency, reconciliation & reintegration, security force assistance, and post-conflict reconstruction. At the Brookings Institution, Jason served as co-author of the Iraq Index project and established the Afghanistan Index and Pakistan Index. He is a PhD Candidate in the War Studies department at Kings College London.

Dean Cheng is the Heritage Foundation’s research fellow on Chinese political and security affairs. Cheng has written extensively on China’s military doctrine, its space program, and “dual use” issues associated with the communist nation’s industrial and scientific infrastructure. He previously worked for 13 years as a senior analyst, first with Science Applications International Corp and then with the China Studies division of the Center for Naval Analyses.

Elbridge Colby is co-founder and principal of The Marathon Initiative, a policy initiative focused on developing strategies to prepare the United States for an era of sustained great-power competition. He is the author of the forthcoming The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict (Yale University Press, 2021).

Robert M. Collins is a 37-year veteran employee of the U.S. Department of the Army and served 31 years in various positions with the U.S. military in Korea, including several liaison positions with the Republic of Korea military. Collins is a freelance writer focusing on Korean security issues and US interests in Northeast Asia. He is the author of Marked For Life: Songbun – North Korea’s Social Classification System, published by the Committee on Human Rights in North Korea, Washington, DC.

Patrick M. Cronin, Ph.D. is Senior Director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. Previously, he was the Senior Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at the National Defense University, where he simultaneously oversaw the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs. Dr. Cronin has a rich and diverse background in both Asian-Pacific security and U.S. defense, foreign and development policy.

Adam Elkus is a PhD student in Computational Social Science at George Mason University. He has published articles on defense, international security, and technology at CTOVisionThe Atlantic, the West Point Combating Terrorism Center’s Sentinel, and Foreign Policy.

Janice Elmore is a retired Foreign Service Officer whose 25 year career included assignments to embassies in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Bosnia, and the Sudan with a focus on political-military and law enforcement issues.

C. Christine Fair, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Peace and Security Studies Program, within Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Previously, she has served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and as a senior research associate in USIP’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. She is also a senior fellow with the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Her research focuses upon political and military affairs in South Asia. Her forthcoming book (Fighting to the End, OUP, 2014) is on the Pakistan Army’s strategic culture. Follow her on Twitter @CChristineFair.

Brian Fishman is a counter-terrorism research fellow at the New America Foundation, a Fellow with the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point, and Philanthropic Engineer with Palantir Technologies. He previously served as the CTC’s Director of Research and was a professor in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point. Fishman is the author of a number of studies on terrorism and al-Qaeda, including seminal investigations of al-Qaeda’s foreign fighters in Iraq and Iranian support for Shia militias fighting U.S. troops in Iraq.  Fishman is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was a founding editor of the CTC Sentinel. He has taught as an adjunct professor in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where his studies focus on violent non-state actors, in particular the al-Qaeda network and other salafi jihadist groups. He is the author or volume editor of twelve books and monographs, including Bin Laden’s Legacy. Daveed is also a Senior Fellow at George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute, and has served as a Visiting Research Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT)–The Hague. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in World Politics at the Catholic University of America.

Thomas Gibbons-Neff (@TMGNeff) served as an infantryman with 1st Battalion 6th Marines from 2007-2011 and participated in two deployments to Afghanistan. He is a student at Georgetown University and a deputy editor at The Hoya.

Robert L. Goldich retired from a 33-year career in the Congressional Research Service in 2005. He was the senior CRS military manpower analyst when he left. Bob is currently writing a book on conscription in history, from the first human civilizations to the present.

Dave Goldich served two tours in Iraq as a Marine rifleman. He is a Client Development Senior Consultant at Gallup.

Dmitry Gorenburg is a senior research scientist in the Strategic Studies division of CNA, a not-for-profit research and analysis organization, where he has worked since 2000. In addition to his work at CNA, Dr. Gorenburg is the editor of the journals Problems of Post-Communism and Russian Politics and Law and an associate at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. He has previously taught in the Department of Government at Harvard University and served as Executive Director of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS). He holds a Ph.D in political science from Harvard University and a B.A. in international relations from Princeton University. He blogs on issues related to the Russian military at http://russiamil.wordpress.com.

Robert Haddick is an independent contractor at U.S. Special Operations Command. He writes here in a personal capacity. In 2014, Naval Institute Press will publish Haddick’s book on the rise of China’s military power and U.S. strategy in East Asia. From January 2009 to September 2012 he was Managing Editor of Small Wars Journal. Haddick was a U.S. Marine Corps officer, served in the 3rd and 23rd Marine Regiments, and deployed to Asia and Africa. He has advised the State Department, the National Intelligence Council, and U.S. Central Command.

T.X. Hammes is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, DC. He served 30 years in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Matthew Hipple is a U.S. Navy surface warfare officer. A graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, he is Director of the NEXTWAR blog for the Center for International Maritime Security. While his opinions may not reflect those of the United States Navy, Department of Defense, or US Government, he wishes they did.

Timothy Hoyt, Ph.D. is Professor of Strategy and Policy and Co-Chair of the Indian Ocean Regional Studies Group at the US Naval War College. He lectures and teaches there on a range of topics including strategy, terrorism, insurgency, warfare in the maritime domain, weapons of mass destruction, contemporary conflict, and South Asian security. He is a participant in Track II discussions with both India and Pakistan.

Mike A. Jacobson is a Field Artillery requirements and concepts analyst working at Headquarters, Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Eustis, VA. He is currently serving in the U.S. Army Reserve as battalion executive officer for the 437th Civil Affairs Battalion, Fort Story, VA. Mike received his master’s in International Studies from Old Dominion University and has deployed to Afghanistan twice.

Karl Kadon consults for a range of government clients on stability operations training strategy and interagency approaches to conflict analysis. He served four years on active duty in the United States Marine Corps from 2007-2011 as a ground intelligence officer and civil affairs officer. He deployed to Al Qa’im, Iraq as an intelligence advisor to the 28th Brigade Iraqi Army in 2009, and to Sangin, Afghanistan from 2010-2011 as the civil affairs team leader for 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Fwd). Karl graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2007 with a BA in Political Science and History, and is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

David Kasten is a DoD Civilian serving at the Army Irregular Warfare Fusion Center (AIWFC) the Chief of Interagency Coordination. Mr. Kasten has over 28 years of U.S. Government experience gained from serving in the Department of Defense, the State Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Sean Kay, Ph.D. is Director of the Arneson Institute for Practical Politics and Public Affairs, and also Robson Professor of Politics and International Studies Chair at Ohio Wesleyan University. He also holds appointments as Mershon Associate at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at the Ohio State University and at the Eisenhower Institute in Washington, D.C.

Colonel Bob Killebrew (USA ret) writes and consults on national defense issues as a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security.  Prior to his retirement from active duty he served for thirty years in a variety of Special Forces, infantry and staff duties.

John T. Kuehn, Ph.D. is currently the General William Stofft Professor of Military History at the US Army Command and General Staff College andhas served on the faculty their since July 2000, retiring as a commander in 2004.  He earned a Ph.D. in History from Kansas State University in 2007.   He is the author of Agents of Innovation (2008) and co-authored Eyewitness Pacific Theater (2008) with D.M. Giangreco, as well as numerous articles and editorials.  He was awarded a Moncado Prize from the Society for Military History in 2010. He flew reconnaissance and combat missions during the last decade of the Cold War, the First Gulf War (Desert Storm), Iraq and the Persian Gulf (Southern Watch), and the Balkans (Deliberate Force over Bosnia).

Michael Kugelman (@michaelkugelman) is the senior program associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and is responsible for research, programming, and publications on the region. His work mainly focuses on Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. He has published op-eds and commentaries in the New York TimesForeign PolicyPolitico, CNN.com, Huffington Post, and Times of India, among others. He has been interviewed by numerous major media outlets including the New York TimesWashington PostWall Street JournalFinancial TimesGuardianChristian Science MonitorNational Geographic, BBC, CNN, NPR, and Voice of America. He has also produced a number of longer publications on South Asia, including most recently the edited volume Pakistan-India Trade: What Needs To Be Done? What Does It Matter?(Wilson Center, 2013). He has published policy briefs, journal articles, and book chapters on issues ranging from Pakistani youth to India’s energy security strategy and transboundary water management in South Asia. Mr. Kugelman received his M.A. in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He received his B.A. from American University’s School of International Service.

Audrey Kurth Cronin is Distinguished Professor at George Mason University’s School of Policy, Government and International Affairs and Director of the newly-established International Security Program.  Prior to that, she was a faculty member and director of the core course on military strategy at the U.S. National War College (2007-2011). She came to the war college from Oxford University (Nuffield College), where she was Director of Studies for the Oxford/Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War from 2005 to 2007. She continues to be a non-residential Senior Research Associate at Oxford. Before that, Dr. Cronin was Specialist in Terrorism at the Congressional Research Service, where she was responsible for advising Members of Congress in the aftermath of 9/11. She has also served periodically in the Executive branch, including in the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Policy.

Thomas F. Lynch III, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Research Fellow for South Asia and the Near East at the Institute of National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He researches, writes, lectures and organizes workshops and conferences for Department of Defense customers on the topics of Pakistan, Afghanistan, India & the Subcontinent, the Gulf Arab States, counterterrorism, and the past & future trajectory of radical Islam.  Lynch is a retired U.S. Army officer who served for 28 years in a variety of command and staff positions including as a Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff & Deputy Director of the Chairman’s Advisory & Initiatives Group; Commander of the U.S. Army War Theater Support Group in Doha, Qatar; Director of the Advisory Group for the Commander, U.S. Central Command; and Military Special Assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan. He spent 42 of 44 months from 2004-07 on assignment in the Middle East and South Asia supporting OPERATIONS ENDURING & IRAQI FREEDOM.

Myra MacDonald is a former Reuters journalist who has worked in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. She was Chief Correspondent in France and Bureau Chief in India. After publishing Heights of Madness, a book on the Siachen war between India and Pakistan, she has focused in recent years on writing about Pakistan.

Al Mauroni is the Director of the U.S. Air Force Counterproliferation Center. The opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Air University, U.S. Air Force, or Department of Defense.

David S. Maxwell (@DavidMaxwell161) is the Associate Director of the Center for Security Studies and the Security Studies Program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University. He is a retired US Army Special Forces Colonel with 30 years of service and graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College, the School of Advanced Military Studies and the National War College.

William McCants, Ph.D. is a fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World of the Brookings Institution. He is also adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University and has held various government and think tank positions related to Islam, the Middle East, and terrorism. From 2009-2011, McCants served as a U.S. State Department senior adviser for countering violent extremism. He has also held positions as program manager of the Minerva Initiative for the Department of Defense; an analyst at the Institute for Defense Analyses, the Center for Naval Analyses, and SAIC; and a fellow at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center. McCants’ book, Founding Gods, Inventing Nations: Conquest and Culture Myths from Antiquity to Islam, traces the history of cultural debate in the Middle East after the Greeks, Romans, and Arabs conquered the region.

Bryan McGrath is the founding Managing Director of The FerryBridge Group LLC (FBG), a niche consultancy specializing in Naval and national security issues, including national and military strategy, strategic planning, executive communications, strategic communications and emerging technologies.  Prior to starting FBG, Bryan founded a national security consulting line of business for Delex Systems  A retired Naval Officer, Bryan spent 21 years on active duty including a tour in command of USS BULKELEY (DDG 84), a guided-missile destroyer homeported in Norfolk, Virginia.  His final duties ashore included serving as Team Lead and Primary Author of the US Navy’s 2007 Maritime Strategy A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower

Kathleen McInnis is an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Research Consultant at the Royal Institute for International Affairs and an MPhil/PhD Candidate in theDepartment of War Studies, King’s College London. Her research focuses on the national politics of defection from military coalitions.  Ms. McInnis co-founded Caerus Associates LLC and served as its Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President.  Before co-founding Caerus, Ms. McInnis served as an Operations Director, NATO-Afghanistan in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Policy), working for the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Affairs. In that capacity, she led a USG team to establish a multinational civilian-military coordination cell at Kandahar Airfield, Regional Command-South and supported formulation of the Obama Administration’s Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy. Follow her on Twitter at @kjmcinnis1.

Steven Metz, Ph.D. has been an analyst and writer on national security policy and military strategy for three decades specializing in American strategy, strategic futures, and insurgency.  He is the author of Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy and writes a weekly column on defense issues for World Politics Review.

Peter J. Munson (@peterjmunson) is senior vice president for preventive services and global crisis management for a private sector corporation, coming to this position after his retirement from the US Marine Corps in 2013. He is a Middle East specialist with professional proficiency in Arabic. Munson is the author of two books, War, Welfare & Democracy: Rethinking America’s Quest for the End of History and Iraq in Transition: The Legacy of Dictatorship and the Prospects for DemocracyIn addition, he was past Editor of the Small Wars Journal is a frequent contributor to international relations and military professional journals.

Peter Neumann, Ph.D. is Professor of Security Studies at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, and serves as Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, which he founded in early 2008. Neumann is a member of the editorial boards of two leading, peer-reviewed journals, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Democracy and Security, and serves as investigator for the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland.

Michael P. Noonan, Ph.D. is the director of the Program on National Security at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. A former Captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, in 2006- 2007 he served on a Military Transition Team (MiTT) with an Iraqi light infantry battalion in and around the northern city of Tal`Afar.

Douglas A. Ollivant, Ph.D. is a Managing Partner and the Senior Vice President of Mantid International, a global consulting firm with offices in Beirut, Baghdad and Washington D.C.  He is also a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation. A retired Army officer, his last assignment in government was as Director for Iraq at the National Security Council during both the Bush and Obama administrations. Ollivant also spent one year in Afghanistan as the Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor to the Commander, Regional Command-East.  Follow him on Twitter at @DouglasOllivant.

Afshon Ostovar, Ph.D. is a Project Director and Research Scientist at the Center for Strategic Studies at CNA, a not-for-profit federally-funded research organization. He was previously an Adjunct Professor in Global Security Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.  His research focuses on security and strategic issues in the Middle East, with a specialty on Iranian strategy, armed forces, and allied entities in the region. He is the author of, On Shifting Sands, a report on the impact of sanctions and the Arab Spring on Iranian strategy. Ostovar is writing a book on politics, conflict, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

William Park is a Senior Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London. He was formerly Principal Lecturer at the British Joint Services Command and Staff College, Bracknell, and at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.

Commander Elton C. Parker III is currently serving as the Special Assistant to the President and Military Assistant to the Provost of National Defense University.  A career naval aviator, his most recent tour was as Speechwriter and Special Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.

Patrick Porter, Ph.D. is Reader in War and International Security at the University of Reading. Originally from Australia, Patrick graduated from the University of Melbourne. He then completed a doctorate at the University of Oxford. His research interests are diplomatic and strategic history, U.S. grand strategy, security in Asia, political realism and the history of geopolitical thought. His latest book is The Global Village Myth: War, Distance, and the Limits of PowerPatrick’s first book was published in 2009 by Columbia University Press and Hurst, Military Orientalism: Eastern War through Western Eyes. He has published in International Affairs, War in History, Diplomacy and Statecraft, War and Society, Historical Research, Security Dialogue, Parameters, the RUSI Journal, the Journal of Religious History and Peace Review, and has written op-eds for Le Monde Diplomatique and the Guardian. Patrick is a fellow of the UK Chief of the Defence Staff’s Strategic Forum.

Tom Quiggin is a former intelligence officer who served in Bosnia.  Following uniformed service, he worked for the International War Crimes Tribunal, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.  A court expert on terrorism, he has a sole author book on national security intelligence. He is a Senior Research Fellow with the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies and an Adjunct at the Royal Military College.

Mira Rapp-Hooper is a Ph.D candidate in Political Science at Columbia University. Her dissertation, entitled “Absolute Alliances: Signaling Security Guarantees in International Politics,” analyzes the formation and management of so-called nuclear umbrella alliances. Her research interests include nuclear policy and strategy, alliance politics, security in East Asia, and US foreign policy.  Mira has previously worked on nuclear strategy and conflict escalation issues for the RAND Corporation, and is currently a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. During the 2014-2015 academic year she will be a National Fellow for Public Policy at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center and a Macarthur Nuclear Security Fellow at Stanford University’s CISAC. Mira’s work has appeared in Political Science Quarterly, Security Studies, Survival, The National Interest, and Foreign Affairs, among others. She holds a B.A. in History from Stanford University and an M.A. and an M. Phil from Columbia University.

Stephen Rodriguez (@steverod78) is Managing Partner of Coldon Strategic Advisors and has thirteen years of operational experience ranging from Afghanistan to Colombia. His core market experience is in the aerospace & defense industry in the realm of technology assessment, game theory applications and implementing strategic initiatives for growth-stage, venture-backed investments. He serves on three corporate boards, is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations and a New York Fellow at the National Review Institute. He also Chairman of the Foreign Policy Initiative’s Leadership Council and a member of the Leadership Council at IAVA.

William Rosenau, Ph.D. is a senior research scientist at CNA’s Center for Strategic Studies. CNA Corporation is a non-profit research center in Alexandria, Virginia. He has also worked as a political scientist at RAND; as a counterterrorism adviser at the State Department; as a senior analyst at SAIC; and as a special assistant to the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. His research interests include Cold War history and culture; the history of terrorism and counterterrorism; and domestic and international organized crime.

W. Jonathan Rue is a senior policy analyst at a small consulting firm where he specializes in defense policy and budget issues. A former Marine captain, he served in Iraq as an intelligence advisor.

Kori Schake, Ph.D. is a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.  She formerly worked in the Departments of Defense and State, was the director of defense strategy and requirements on the NSC, and held the distinguished chair in international security studies at West Point.

Kiron K. Skinner, Ph.D. is the W. Glenn Campbell Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. At Carnegie Mellon University, she is founding director of the Center for International Relations and Politics; university adviser on national security policy; and associate professor of political science.  Her areas of expertise are international relations, US foreign policy, and political strategy. Since 2004, she has served on the Chief of Naval Operations’ Executive Panel. In 2010, Professor Skinner was appointed to the advisory board of the George W. Bush Oral History Project. In 2012, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett appointed her to his Advisory Commission on African American Affairs.  During the presidency of George W. Bush, Professor Skinner served on the Defense Department’s Defense Policy Board and was a White House appointee to the National Security Education Board.  Her coauthored books Reagan, in His Own Hand and Reagan, a Life in Letters were New York Times best sellers, and The Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin was excerpted on the opinion page of the New York Times. Her opinion pieces appear in leading newspapers and national online outlets.

Anna Simons is a Professor of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School.  She holds a PhD in social anthropology from Harvard University and an A.B. from Harvard College.  She is the author of Networks of Dissolution: Somalia Undone and The Company They Keep: Life Inside the U.S. Army Special ForcesMost recently she is the co-author of The Sovereignty Solution: A Commonsense Approach to Global Security.

Stanley R. Sloan is a visiting scholar at the Rohatyn Center at Middlebury College.  Over the past decade, he has taught courses on transatlantic relations and American power while lecturing regularly at the NATO College.  He concluded government service as the Senior Specialist in International Security Policy at the Congressional Research Service after serving as the Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Europe at the Central Intelligence Agency.   Stan is a graduate of the University of Maine, Columbia’s School of International Affairs, and is a distinguished graduate of the USAF Officer Training School.  He has authored dozens of CRS studies, journal articles, opinion editorials and books, his most recent being Permanent Alliance?  NATO and the Transatlantic Bargain from Truman to Obama (2010).

MLR Smith, Ph.D. (AKA Michael Rainsborough) is Professor of Strategic Theory at the Kings College London War Studies Department. He joined the Department in 1997 having previously been Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and International Affairs at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and the Defence Studies Department, Joint Services Command and Staff College.

Daniel Steed, Ph.D. has recently taken up position as Lecturer in Strategy and Defence at the University of Exeter’s newly established Strategy and Security Institute. His tasks at Exeter include helping in the design and delivery of the new MA in Applied Security Strategy, under the direction of General (Rtd.) Sir Paul Newton and Professor Paul Cornish.

Christopher Swift is an Adjunct Professor of National Security Studies at Georgetown University and a Fellow at the University of Virginia Law School’s Center for National Security Law. An attorney and political scientist, his research examines the intersection between constitutional law, international law, and national security affairs.

John Thorne is a senior consultant at Diligent Innovations, a defense and national security strategy consulting firm in Washington, DC. Previously, he spent 13 months in Kandahar, Afghanistan as a civilian employee of the Department of Defense. He holds an MA from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a BA from the University of Chicago.

Marc Tyrrell, Ph.D. is an Anthropologist with a research focus on the practical and philosophical grounds of how sensemaking is possible or, in other words, how do people make sense of their lives and what do they use to do it? Rather than examining the “everyday” use of symbols, he concentrates on symbol systems that developed to meet specific “breaches” in consensual reality. This has led to examining symbol systems that are “unusual” – modern Witchcraft; corporate rituals of firing, restructuring and alliances; the use of radical religious symbols in insurgencies; the interplay between music and radical action, etc. At the present time, Marc is teaching at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) and is a Senior Research Fellow with the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies.

Joshua W. Walker, Ph.D. is a Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Truman National Security Project having previously served as a Senior Adviser to the U.S. Department of State. Dr. Walker is the director of Global Programs at APCO Worldwide in the Office of the CEO, specializing in foreign policy, international affairs, and public-private partnerships.

Joshua T. White, Ph.D. is Deputy Director for South Asia at the Stimson Center. Prior to joining Stimson, he served as Senior Advisor for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a position he held in conjunction with an International Affairs Fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. He graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College with a double major in History and Mathematics, and received his Ph.D. with distinction from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

Ali Wyne is an associate of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, a contributing analyst at Wikistrat, and a blogger for Big Think.  He also serves on two Council on Foreign Relations study groups, one on American policy towards China and another on geoeconomics.  Wyne was a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from 2008 to 2009. From January to August 2013, Wyne served on the transition team of American Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. A frequent commentator on international affairs, Wyne is a coauthor, with Graham Allison and Robert Blackwill, of Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013).

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