Dr John Nagl is the President of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Prior to this position, he was a senior fellow at CNAS. He is a Visiting Professor in the War Studies Department at Kings College of London, an Adjunct Professor in Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Dr Nagl was a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Military Academy Class of 1988 and served as an armor officer in the U.S. Army for 20 years, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  His last military assignment was as commander of the 1st Battalion, 34th Armor at Fort Riley, Kansas, training Transition Teams that embed with Iraqi and Afghan units.  He led a tank platoon in Operation Desert Storm and served as the operations officer of a tank battalion task force in Operation Iraqi Freedom.  He earned his doctorate from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar*, taught national security studies at West Point, and served as a Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.  Dr Nagl also earned a Master of the Military Arts and Sciences Degree from the Command and General Staff College, where he received the George C. Marshall Award.  He was awarded the Combat Action Badge by General James Mattis, USMC.

Dr Nagl is the author of Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife:  Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam and was on the writing team that produced the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. His writings have also been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Parameters, Military Review, Joint Force Quarterly, Armed Forces Journal, and Democracy, among others. He was also profiled in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times Magazine.  Dr Nagl has previously appeared on National Public Radio, 60 Minutes, Washington Journal, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has lectured domestically and internationally at military war colleges, the Pentagon's Joint Staff and Defense Policy Board, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, major universities, intelligence agencies, and business forums.

*During his periods of study at the University of Oxford, Dr Nagl was Vice-President and then President of OUSSG.