Dr. Thomas G. Mahnken is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He is a Senior Research Professor at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
He currently serves as a member of the Congressionally mandated 2022 National Defense Strategy Commission. His previous government career includes service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning from 2006–2009, in the Office of Net Assessment, and in the Nonproliferation Policy Office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He served as a member of the 2018 National Defense Strategy Commission and on the Board of Visitors of Marine Corps University. He served on the staff of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Gulf War Air Power Survey. He served for 24 years as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, including tours in Iraq and Kosovo.
In 2009 he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service and in 2016, the Department of the Navy Superior Civilian Service Medal.
Dr. Mahnken’s books include Net Assessment and Military Strategy (Cambria Press, 2020), Learning the Lessons of Modern War (Stanford University Press, 2020), The Gathering Pacific Storm (Cambria Press, 2018), Competitive Strategies for the 21st Century (Stanford University Press, 2012), Technology and the American Way of War Since 1945 (Columbia University Press, 2008), and Uncovering Ways of War: U.S. Intelligence and Foreign Military Innovation, 1918–1941 (Cornell University Press, 2002).
EDUCATION
Johns Hopkins University, Ph.D., International Affairs
Johns Hopkins University, M.A., Strategic Studies and International Economics
University of Southern California, B.A., History
University of Southern California, B.A., International Relations