Faculty - Department of Defense Analysis
Defense Analysis Department Chair, Dr. Carter Malkasian
Professor Carter Malkasian was the senior civilian advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford from 2015 to 2019. He has extensive experience working in conflict zones, especially Afghanistan and Iraq, and has published several books. The highlight of his work in conflict zones was nearly two years in Garmser district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, as a State Department political officer. He was also in al-Anbar in 2004–2005 and 2006; Kunar in 2007; Honduras in 2012; and was General Dunford’s senior advisor in Afghanistan in 2013–2014. His newest book is The American War in Afghanistan: A History. The New York Times rated it as one of the top 100 books of 2021. His 2013 book, War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier (Oxford University Press), won the 2014 silver medal for the Council on Foreign Relations’ Arthur Ross Book Award. Other books include Illusions of Victory: The Anbar Awakening and the Islamic State, A History of Modern Wars of Attrition (2002), and The Korean War, 1950-1953. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley and completed his doctorate in history at Oxford University. He speaks Pashto.
John Arquilla is a Distinguished Professor of Defense Analysis at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. His interests extend from the history of irregular warfare to the strategic implications of the information revolution. He is the author of: The Reagan Imprint; Worst Enemy; Insurgents, Raiders, and Bandits; Afghan Endgames; and, most recently, Why the Axis Lost. Some principal publications from his years with the RAND Corporation think tank range from In Athena’s Camp to Networks and Netwars and, most recently, Whose Story Wins. The two earlier RAND books foretold problems of cyber insecurity, while the current monograph studies, among its other themes, the vulnerability of the United States to political warfare waged via social media. His commentaries have been widely published, including in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, The Atlantic, Politico, and Foreign Policy Magazine. He has appeared on all the major network and cable news programs. In terms of policy work, Dr. Arquilla consulted to senior military commanders during Operation Desert Storm and the Kosovo War. He has continued in this capacity in several post-9/11 actions. In 2011 he served on a small team, working for President Barack Obama, who asked to be provided with some “new directions for American defense.” His forthcoming book is Blitzkrieg: The New Challenge of Cyberwarfare.
Global ECCO Program, Women Peace and Security
M.A., Food Studies, University of the Pacific, 2020
smbaho@nps.edu
How do organizations respond when their legacy modes of operation no longer match their evolving strategic environment? I have worked on such topics for a number of entities across the Department of Defense. Leading teams of military officers, academics, and other experts, I have helped organizations rethink how they gather information, measure success, invest in infrastructure and - most importantly - link their daily activities to deeper strategic purpose. I joined Defense Analysis in the summer of 2008. I have a BA from the University of San Francisco, an MA from Columbia University, and a PhD in political science from the University of California at Davis. My dissertation on patterns of imperial expansion received the best dissertation award from the Western Political Science Association and has been published as Rational Empires: Institutional Incentives and Imperial Expansion (University of Chicago Press, 2012). I have also co-edited Assessing War: The Challenge of Measuring Success and Failure (Georgetown University Press, 2015) and have published articles on strategy, metrics/assessment, intelligence, and emerging technology.
Director, RDFP Global ECCO Program
Ph.D., Political Science, Boston University, 1993
daborer@nps.edu
Ph.D., Operations Research, Air Force Institute of Technology, 2006
reburks@nps.edu
CORE Lab
MPA, Monterey Institute of International Studies, 2016
c.callaghan@nps.edu
MBA, International Management, Thunderbird School of Management, 2001
npchrist@nps.edu
CORE Lab
Ph.D., Candidate in Information Sciences, Naval Postgraduate School, 2015-current
dtcunnin@nps.edu
MBA, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University,
justin.p.davis@nps.edu
National Intelligence Chair
Ph.D., History, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom,
michael.donovan@nps.edu
Mr. Sean Everton is a Professor in the Department of Defense Analysis and the Co-Director of the CORE (Common Operational Research Environment) Lab at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Prior to joining NPS in 2007 he served as an adjunct professor at both Santa Clara and Stanford universities. He earned his MA and PhD in Sociology at Stanford University and wrote his doctoral thesis on the causes and consequences of status on venture capital firm performance. He has published in the areas of social network analysis, sociology of religion, economic sociology, and political sociology and currently specializes in the use of social network analysis to track and disrupt dark networks (e.g., criminal and terrorist networks). His first book, Disrupting Dark Networks, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2012, and his second book, Understanding Dark Networks (co-authored with Daniel Cunningham and Phil Murphy), was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2016. His most recent book, Networks and Religion, which explores the interplay of networks and religion was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018.
Ph.D., Department of Political Science, University of Chicago, 2001
mefreema@nps.edu
Retired AF Special Operations Officer. Teaching Interests: Strategy, Airpower, Special Operations
Ph.D., Experimental (Social) Psychology, University of Montana, 2015
shannon.houck@nps.edu
Global ECCO Program
Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction, Specialized in Language and Literacy Education, Pennsylvania State University, 2005
Hyunsoo.hur@nps.edu
Research Interests: Military History; Pacific History; Chinese Foreign Relations; History of Technology; U.S. Military Development; Interstate/Imperial Competition.
Global ECCO Program
M.A., Security Studies (Combating Terrorism), Naval Postgraduate School, 2014
akatormu@nps.edu
DoD IO Center for Research, Global ECCO Program
M.A., Public Policy, Panetta Institute, 2010
rdlorent@nps.edu
DoD IO Center for Research
Ph.D., Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2013
rmaness@nps.edu
Global ECCO Program
MA, Religious Studies and Cognitive Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2021
julia.mcclenon@nps.edu
Ph.D., School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, 1987
gmccormick@nps.edu
Global ECCO Program
Ph.D., Education & Organizational Leadership (Current Doctoral Student), 2022
michael.mollohan@nps.edu
Information Systems Department
MBA, Management, Golden Gate University, 1990
sjmullin@nps.edu
Ph.D., Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2010
stnaficy@nps.edu; siamaknaficy@yahoo.com
Systems Engineering Departments, Co-Director of CORE Lab and Director of the Littoral Operations Center
Ph.D., Information Science, Naval Postgraduate School,
nwporter@nps.edu
Global ECCO Program. Additive Manufacturing MOVES Institute/CS Dept.
Ph.D., Physics, Brandeis University,
ebrockow@nps.edu
CORE Lab
M.A., International Policy Analysis, Monterey Institute of International Studies, 2011
rcschroe@nps.edu
Dr. Sepp is presently a Senior Lecturer in the Defense Analysis Department at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. From 2019 to 2020, he was Chair of the department. Dr. Sepp served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Counterterrorism, from 2007 to 2009. He was a member of the White House Counterterrorism Strategy Group, and was responsible for the Department of Defense global counterterrorism portfolio. This included policy oversight of all special operations world-wide, and formulation of the Department’s global counterterrorism strategy. A former U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret) officer, he earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University, and his Combat Infantryman Badge in the Salvadoran Civil War. Dr. Sepp also graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College with a Master’s degree in Military Art and Science. His unit assignments included the 82d Airborne Division, the 2d Ranger Battalion, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Germany, and the 2d Infantry Division in Korea, among others. He was an assistant professor of history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and a resident scholar at Harvard University. He served as an analyst and strategist in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as an expert member of the Baker-Hamilton Bipartisan Commission on Iraq, a.k.a. the Iraq Study Group. While assigned in Iraq, Dr. Sepp wrote “Best Practices in Counterinsurgency,” later published in Military Review (May-June 2005), and reprinted in Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese. He is co-author of Weapon of Choice: U.S. Army Special Operations in Afghanistan, with R. Kiper, J. Schroder, and C. Briscoe (2003). He also authored chapters for Assessing War: The Challenge of Measuring Success and Failure (2015), Leadership: The Warrior’s Art (2001), War in Iraq: Planning and Execution (2007), Fuehrungsdenken in europaeischen und nordamerikanischen Steitkraeften im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (2001), A Global History of Relocation in Counterinsurgency Warfare (2020), and the NATO report, Counterinsurgency: The Challenge for NATO Strategy and Operations (2010), along with other articles, essays, reviews and studies. Dr. Sepp was named one of “The Ten Most Influential Counterinsurgency Thinkers” in the United States by Foreign Policy magazine (2009). He has appeared on PBS Newshour, CNN, CNNi, BBC, MSNBC, CBS, National Public Radio and other national news programs. His sons – a Marine and an Army paratrooper, both captains – both served in Iraq.
Global ECCO Program
M.A., International Policy Studies and Russian Language, Monterey Institute of International Studies,
eskinner@nps.edu
Dr. Bradley Strawser, himself a US Air Force veteran, received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Connecticut and has lectured on the ethics of war and peace, military ethics, bioethics, and development ethics throughout the United States and Europe. He has published in such peer-reviewed journals as Analysis, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Philosophia, Journal of Military Ethics, Public Affairs Quarterly, Journal of Human Rights, and Epoché. Dr. Strawser has published books with Oxford University Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, and Routledge. He has also written widely in popular media such as the New York Times, the Guardian, 3 Quarks Daily, among other places, and has appeared on various NPR affiliates, the BBC World Service, and other media outlets. In addition, Dr. Strawser is the Founder and CEO of Compass Ethics, an organizational ethics consultancy where he regularly advises senior leadership of Fortune 500 Companies on issues of ethical risk, improving ethical culture, and successful ethical outcomes.
Mr. John Tullius retired from the CIA in 2019 after serving three years as the Agency’s faculty Representative to NPS from 2016, when he intelligence-related classes on Covert Action, HUMINT, CPWMD and International Terrorism. Prior to his retirement, John held a variety of positions, including managing China S&T analysis, working overseas as the Iranian nuclear expert, managing a group of big data analysts, and then managing OSE’s bureaus in Europe and the Middle East during the Arab Spring, emergence of foreign fighters, and ISIS. John is also a Senior Vice President for Grist Mill Exchange, a company that provides unique commercially available datasets to government agencies. He is also a senior advisor to Orbis Operations, where he has helped a friendly foreign government develop a large OSINT and analytic department.
I am an assistant professor in the Defense Analysis Department at the Naval Postgraduate School and a nonresident fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. I study issues at the intersection of nuclear proliferation, emerging technology, and regional security. My most recent publication, "Dual-Use Distinguishability: How 3D-Printing Shapes the Security Dilemma for Nuclear Programs," explores the effect of technological change on future proliferation dynamics. This article appears in the Journal of Strategic Studies as part of a special issue about the impact of emerging technologies on strategic stability. My work has appeared in peer-review journals such as Security Studies, the Journal of Strategic Studies, and the Nonproliferation Review. I also write for general policy audiences in journals such as Foreign Affairs, the Washington Quarterly, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. I run the Counter-Proliferation Studies program and teach courses on coercive strategy and proliferation for NPS students in the Defense Analysis Department. I live and work in Monterey County, California. In the past, I was a fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and then the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Prior to arriving in Monterey, I served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the International Conflict Research (ICR) group and the Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS) at ETH Zurich, and at Princeton’s Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, after graduating with a Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University, with concentrations in International Relations and Quantitative Methods. My research focuses on the study of international security, conflict processes, ethnic politics, statistical methods, and computational modeling. I am particularly interested in building new linkages between micro- and macro-level evidence in the study of armed conflict, both within and between states. My first book project, The Breakdown of Peace, examines the political economy of symbolic national attachments and the emergence of domestic mass violence. The central argument is that the political pursuit of violent fragmentation is less likely to succeed in countries with strong mass media structures, because such structures generate opportunities for political entrepreneurs to successfully deploy inclusive mobilizational appeals on a national scale. This framework thus endogenizes the emergence of intra-state security dilemmas, by describing the structural conditions under which divided group loyalties are more likely to emerge. It also overturns much of the conventional wisdom concerning the relationship between media and collective violence by demonstrating that mass communication networks, which have frequently been blamed for stoking inter-group animosities, can actually serve as powerful forces for domestic peace and stability. Concurrently, I am also developing independent and collaborative projects on alliance formation, nationalism, war severity, and the emergence of the modern state system.
M.A. National Security Affairs (Special Operations Curriculum), Naval Postgraduate School, 1995
Fellow, Naval Postgraduate School, 2005
Distinguished Alumnus, Naval Postgraduate School, 2018,
Eric.wendt@nps.edu
Ph.D., Cultural Evolution and Human Behavioral Ecology, University of California, Davis, 2013
mrzeffer@nps.edu