Dr. Mark T. Esper served as United States secretary of defense from July 2019 to November 2020. From November 2017 to June 2019, he served as secretary of the Army. He is currently the Distinguished Chair of the Modern War Institute at West Point.

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Col. Patrick J. Sullivan is a career engineer officer who has commanded at every level from company through brigade, with service in the 10th Mountain Division, 3rd Infantry Division, 82nd Airborne Division, and 20th Engineer Brigade (XVIII Airborne Corps).

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John Amble is the editorial director of the Modern War Institute at West Point. He is a military intelligence officer in the US Army Reserve and a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. He writes on terrorism, intelligence, the military, and the Middle East.

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Dr. Max Margulies is the Director of Research and an Assistant Professor at the Modern War Institute at West Point. He also serves as the course director for the thesis and capstone programs in West Point’s Defense and Strategic Studies program. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in Political Science from Columbia University, and a BA in Political Science (Honors) from McGill University.

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Lt. Col. Charles Faint currently serves as staff assistant of the Modern War Institute at West Point and as an Assistant Professor, teaching Comparative Defense Policy. A military intelligence officer, he holds five undergraduate and graduate degrees, the most recent of which is from Yale University. Published in a number of blogs and professional journals, Lt. Col. Faint is also the coauthor of Violence of Action: The Untold Stories of the 75th Ranger Regiment in the War on Terror.

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Maj. Chalie L. Galliand is the operations officer of the Modern War Institute at West Point. An Air Force officer, he is currently assigned as a rotating faculty member and assistant professor on assignment from the United States Air Force Academy as an exchange instructor. Prior to joining MWI, he taught in the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering. Maj. Galliand serves as a faculty advisor for cadets conducting space and air warfare-related research.

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Timothy Heck is the deputy editorial director of the Modern War Institute at West Point. He is an artillery officer in the US Marine Corps Reserve and a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. He writes on military history, amphibious operations, operational art, and the Cold War. He teaches courses in the Defense & Strategic Studies program.

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Sergeant First Class Jarrid Johnson is the senior enlisted advisor for the Modern War Institute at West Point. He is an instructor for MS200 Fundamentals of Small Unit Operations. SFC Johnson is also the non-commissioned officer-in-charge and dive supervisor for the USMA Maritime Assessment Course for cadets attending Special Forces Combat Diver Qualification Course (CDQC).

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Capt. Joe McGiffin commissioned as a logistics officer from the University of Virginia ROTC program in 2014 with a BA in history. As a lieutenant, he served in the 3rd Infantry Division, providing forward sustainment support to various battalion formations through both resupply and maintenance operations.

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John W. Spencer is the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, codirector of the Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast. A leading expert on military operations in dense urban areas, megacities, and urban and subterranean warfare, he also serves as a colonel in the California State Guard with assignment to the 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guard as the director of urban warfare training.

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Kyle Atwell is an active duty US Army officer, an instructor in the Social Sciences Department at West Point, and a PhD candidate in security studies at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. His operational experience includes assignments in North and West Africa, Afghanistan, South Korea, and Germany.

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Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan is an Australian polar geopolitics expert and codirector of MWI’s Project 6633. Her research interests include Arctic and Antarctic geopolitics, energy security, Russian grand strategy, and strategic studies more broadly. Dr. Buchanan is Head of Research for the Royal Australian Navy. She was formerly a lecturer of strategic studies for the Defence and Strategic Studies Course at the Australian War College.

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Dr. Ryan Burke is an associate professor and curriculum director in the Department of Military & Strategic Studies at the US Air Force Academy and codirector of MWI’s Project 6633. Ryan came to USAFA after completing a Department of Defense–funded postdoctoral fellowship in the University of Delaware’s Joseph R. Biden School of Public Policy and Administration, where he also earned his PhD.

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Matt Cavanaugh is an active duty US Army strategist with global experience and assignments ranging from the Pentagon to Korea and West Point to the Middle East. He earned his master’s degree at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand and his PhD under Professor Emeritus Colin Gray at the University of Reading (UK). His writings have been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, among other outlets.

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Jahara “Franky” Matisek is an active duty officer in the US Air Force, currently serving as an assistant professor in the Department of Military and Strategic Studies at the US Air Force Academy. He is a former C-17 pilot with over 2,000 hours of flight time, to include over 700 hours of combat time, and was a T-6 Instructor Pilot at the prestigious Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot program.

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Shawna Sinnott is an active duty Marine Corps officer who has served in a variety of operational, staff, policy, and leadership roles across I Marine Expeditionary Force, Special Operations Command, and Headquarters Marine Corps. Her operational deployments have taken her across West Asia, the Arabian Gulf, and East Africa. Shawna holds an AB from Harvard College and an MLitt from the University of St Andrews in the study of terrorism and political violence.

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Maggie Smith is a cyber officer assigned to the Army Cyber Institute. She originally enlisted in 2004 to complete her undergraduate education but serving quickly became a passion and turned into a career. She commissioned via ROTC in 2013 after completing her master of public policy (with a focus in homeland security and intelligence policy) at Georgetown University with the US Army’s Green to Gold program.

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Maj. Rose Horswill grew up in Wyoming, Rhode Island, and commissioned from USMA in 2010 as a signal corps officer. Her first assignment was to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, where she was a platoon leader, company executive officer, and the company commander for C/307th Joint/Area Signal Company. She was also the assistant operations officer for the installation network enterprise center.

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Zhanna L. Malekos Smith, JD, is a senior associate with the Strategic Technologies Program and the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC, and an assistant professor in the Department of Systems Engineering at West Point. Prior to joining West Point, Malekos Smith was a professor of cyber warfare studies with the US Air War College. 

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Dr. Rob Person is an associate professor of international relations at the United States Military at West Point where he teaches courses in Russian and post-Soviet politics, international relations, comparative politics, and political economy.  Additionally, he serves as director of curriculum for West Point’s International Affairs Program in the Department of Social Sciences.

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