Hello! I am an assistant professor in the Department of Military and Strategic Studies at the U.S. Air Force Academy. I am also a nonresident research fellow with the Institute for Global Affairs' Independent America project and an advisor for the Irregular Warfare Initiative's Project Air and Space Power. Previously, I was a two-time nonresident fellow with the Modern War Institute at West Point.
My research focuses on the politics, strategies, and emerging technologies of international security and conflict. In other words, why and how do states and nonstate groups use force? This includes how they innovate to survive, prevail, and advance their agendas. I examine how combatants perceive and use emerging technologies, namely unmanned aerial systems, artificial intelligence, and cyber power.
I have two novel datasets collected to examine new questions and conventional ones at greater resolution. Military Operations with Novel Strategic Technologies in r (MONSTr) offers a comprehensive list of US military operations from 1989 to January 2021 featuring the means of force used, geocoded locations, combatant rosters, and information on structural dependencies between events within campaigns and wars. My dataset on violent nonstate actor drone adoption has received international attention and is considered a cornerstone in understanding quantitative trends on this phenomenon.
I value rigorous, empirical, engaged scholarship that spans academic and practitioner spheres. My work has been published in multiple academic journals, edited volumes, and policy venues. I have also collaborated with several organizations including the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate, Office of Counter-Terrorism, Institute for Disarmament Research, and Office of Disarmament Affairs; the Global Counterterrorism Forum; NATO's Vulnerabilities in the Drone Age working group and Science for Peace and Security Programme; the Defense Intelligence Agency; and weTHINK.’s globally collaborative wargame working group on UAS attacks in urban settings.
Previously, I earned a BA in Intercultural Studies from Biola University, an MLitt in International Security Studies from the University of St. Andrews, and an MA and PhD in Political Science from Texas Tech University. During my undergraduate, I interned at the Pentagon in International Security, Middle East Policy. While there, I served as point of contact for the US–Israel Short Range Rocket Defense Working Group, a project mandated by Secretary of Defense Gates and Minister of Defense Barak that later evolved into the Iron Dome project. After undergraduate studies, I was a field officer on a university police force.
I’m also a real person. I love science fiction (reading, watching, and writing), karaoke, scuba diving, being outdoors and in nature, traveling, playing the piano, board games (the more ruthless, the better), motorcycling, fitness, and animals (especially mine—Marcus and Six say hi).
