Defense Experts Join Johns Hopkins SAIS Strategic Studies

February 5, 2018
 
The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is pleased to announce that Lt. Gen. David W. Barno (Ret.) and Dr. Nora Bensahel will join the school’s Strategic Studies faculty in fall 2018 as Visiting Professors of Strategic Studies and Senior Fellows at the Phillip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies.

“We are delighted to welcome Lieutenant General David Barno and Dr. Nora Bensahel to the Strategic Studies team at Johns Hopkins SAIS,” said Eliot Cohen, Director of the Strategic Studies Program. “These are exceptional teachers and practitioners, well-known, widely admired, and tremendously respected in the national security community. We're lucky to have them with us.”

Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, USA (Ret.) is a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the School of International Service at American University and a Contributing Editor at War on the Rocks, where he co-authors the Strategic Outpost column. He is also an adjunct staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses and a member of DOD's Reserve Forces Policy Board. Lt. Gen. Barno was the senior American commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2003–2005. Subsequently, he served as the Director of DOD's Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies and later as a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He publishes and speaks on national security topics regularly and has testified before Congress numerous times. Barno is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and holds a MA in National Security Studies from Georgetown University.

Dr. Nora Bensahel is a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the School of International Service at American University and a Contributing Editor at War on the Rocks, where she co-authors the Strategic Outpost column. She is also an adjunct staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses and a member of DOD's Reserve Forces Policy Board. She is a widely published expert on U.S. defense policy, military operations, and force structure, as well as coalition and alliance operations. Bensahel previously served as the Deputy Director of Studies and Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and as a senior researcher at RAND. She also spent more than a decade teaching in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University, where she received the Alumni Leadership Council Teaching Award. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University.

"Johns Hopkins SAIS has a global reputation of unparalleled excellence and hosts one of the premier national security studies programs in the nation," Barno said. "We look forward to being a part of this renowned collection of scholars and practitioners exploring some of the biggest national security issues of the day."
 
Bensahel added, "I am thrilled to join the faculty of the world-famous Strategic Studies program at Johns Hopkins SAIS. The scholars, staff, and graduate students are second to none, and Dave and I are truly excited to join this remarkable community."