Advisory Board

The GSSR Advisory board consists of faculty members from the Georgetown Security Studies Program and provides guidance at all stages of the publication process. Its members include:

Susan Bryant

Dr. Susan Bryant is a 1989 graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She currently works as the Executive Director of Strategic Education International, an educational non-profit that designs and delivers executive education programs for governments and private industry. She also teaches Grand Strategy and Military History at Georgetown University and Defense Policy Making at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and serves as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at National Defense University. Susan is a veteran of the United States Army having served 28 years on active duty, with more than 20 of them in strategic level assignments. She retired in 2017 at the rank of Colonel. Her military assignments include: Senior Military Fellow, National Defense University, Chief of Staff of the Army’s Strategic Studies Group, Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans, Programs and Assessments for the United States Security Coordinator for Israel and Palestine, and as the Division Chief for the Strategy, Concepts and Doctrine Division on the Army Staff. Her overseas tours include assignments in Israel, Afghanistan, and South Korea. Dr. Bryant’s education includes a Master’s Degree in International Relations from Yale University, a Master’s Degree in Operational Planning from Marine Corps University’s School of Advanced Warfighting and a Doctorate in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University. She is also former Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, as well as a Columbia University Next Generation Fellow. Dr. Bryant is a co-author Military Strategy in the 21st Century (Cambria Press, 2018) and the forthcoming Finding Ender: Exploring the Intersections of Creativity, Innovation and Talent Management in the United States Armed Forces (NDU Press, 2019). Her current research interests are military innovation and civil military relations.

Ben Buchanan

Ben Buchanan is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he conducts research on the intersection of cybersecurity and statecraft. His first book, The Cybersecurity Dilemma, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017. Previously, he has written journal articles and peer-reviewed papers on artificial intelligence, attributing cyber attacks, deterrence in cyber operations, cryptography, election cybersecurity, and the spread of malicious code between nations and non-state actors. He is also a regular contributor to War on the Rocks and Lawfare, and has published op-eds in the Washington Post and other outlets. Ben received his PhD in War Studies from King’s College London, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He earned masters and undergraduate degrees from Georgetown University.

Daniel Byman

Daniel Byman is a professor in the School of Foreign Service with a concurrent appointment with the Department of Government. He is also the Vice Dean for Undergraduate Affairs. He served as director of Georgetown’s Security Studies Program and Center for Security Studies from 2005 until 2010. He also leads at Georgetown team in teaching a “Massive Open Online Course” (MOOC) on terrorism and counterterrorism for EdX. Professor Byman is also a part-time Senior Fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. From 2002 to 2004 he served as a Professional Staff Member with the 9/11 Commission and with the Joint 9/11 Inquiry Staff of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. Before joining the Inquiry Staff he was the Research Director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy at the RAND Corporation. Previous to this, Professor Byman worked as an analyst on the Middle East for the U.S. government. He is the author of Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford, 2015); A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism (Oxford, 2011); The Five Front War: The Better Way to Fight Global Jihad (Wiley, 2007); Deadly Connections: States that Sponsor Terrorism (Cambridge, 2005); Keeping the Peace: Lasting Solutions to Ethnic Conflict (Johns Hopkins, 2002); and co-author of Things Fall Apart: Containing the Spillover from the Iraqi Civil War (Brookings, 2007) and The Dynamics of Coercion: American Foreign Policy and the Limits of Military Might (Cambridge, 2002). Professor Byman has also written extensively on a range of topics related to terrorism, international security, civil and ethnic conflict, and the Middle East. His recent articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, as well as journals including Political Science Quarterly, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, International Security, and Journal of Strategic Studies. Follow Professor Byman on twitter @dbyman.

Paula Doyle

Paula Doyle retired in December 2016 as one of three CIA Associate Deputy Directors of Operations, where she oversaw worldwide HUMINT operations and activities that required the use of air, land, maritime, space-based and cyber technologies. She was the Deputy National Counterintelligence Executive from 2012-2014, where she oversaw the official US Damage Assessment resulting from Private Manning’s 2010 unauthorized disclosures to Wikileaks and led the IC’s extensive review of Edward Snowden’s unauthorized disclosures and defection to Russia. She led three CIA stations in Europe, the Levant, and Asia. Prior to joining CIA, Paula Doyle was a Foreign Service Officer in three embassies in Latin America and Europe. She is the recipient of several awards from the CIA, the DNI, DIA, and the NRO, the most significant of which was a CIA Team Trailblazer Award in 2007 for her role in a decade long effort against a significant nuclear proliferation network and the CIA’s Distinguished Career Intellgience Medal.

Keir Lieber

Keir A. Lieber is Associate Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Director of the Center for Security Studies (CSS) and Security Studies Program (SSP). He is a core faculty member of the CSS / SSP, and also holds a joint appointment with the Department of Government. As a member of the inaugural class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows, Lieber received a major research grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to support his project, “Nuclear Weapons and the New Era of Strategic Instability.” Lieber’s research and teaching interests include the causes of war; nuclear weapons, deterrence, and strategy; U.S. foreign policy; and international relations theory. He is author of War and the Engineers: The Primacy of Politics over Technology (Cornell University Press, 2005, 2008) and editor of War, Peace, and International Political Realism (University of Notre Dame Press, 2009). His articles have appeared in leading scholarly and foreign policy publications, including International SecurityForeign Affairs, and the Atlantic Monthly. He is currently writing a book with Daryl Press (Dartmouth College) on nuclear weapons and international relations. Lieber has also been awarded other fellowships and major grants from the Brookings Institution, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Council on Foreign Relations, Earhart Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and Smith Richardson Foundation. Lieber received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago, graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is a proud product of the D.C. public schools.

Michael Mazarr

Michael J. Mazarr is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. Previously he worked at the U.S. National War College, where he was professor and associate dean of academics; as president of the Henry L. Stimson Center; senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; senior defense aide on Capitol Hill; and as a special assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His primary interests are U.S. defense policy and force structure, East Asian security, nuclear weapons and deterrence, and judgment and decisionmaking under uncertainty. Mazarr holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Maryland.

Rebecca Patterson

Professor Rebecca D. Patterson is the Associate Director of the Center for Security Studies and Security Studies Program at Georgetown University and Professor of the Practice of International Affairs in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Professor Patterson’s research and teaching interests include civil-military relations, nation-building, peacekeeping, and post-conflict economics.  She is the author of The Challenge of Nation-Building: Implementing Effective Innovation in the U.S. Army from World War II to the Iraq War (Rowman & Littlefield).  Most recently, she served as the Deputy Director in the Office of Peace Operations, Sanctions, and Counter Terrorism at the Department of State.  A retired U.S. Army officer with more than 22 years of experience, she served in overseas assignments in Thailand, Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Elizabeth Stanley

Elizabeth A. Stanley, Ph.D. is an associate professor of security studies with joint appointments in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government. She has served as associate director of Georgetown’s Security Studies Program. Earlier in her career, she served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in South Korea, Germany, and on deployments to the Balkans, leaving service as a captain. She is the creator of Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT), tested through four neuroscience research studies with the U.S. military. She’s taught MMFT to thousands in civilian and military high-stress environments. She’s also is a certified practitioner of Somatic Experiencing, a body-based trauma therapy. She speaks, teaches, and writes widely on a variety of topics related to resilience, decision-making in stressful environments, civil-military relations, military effectiveness and innovation, and international security. Her book, Paths to Peace, won the 2009 Edgar S. Furniss Award for an exceptional contribution to the field of national and international security.

Albert Willner

Albert S. Willner is a Principal Research Scientist in CNA China Studies Division, where he conducts research and analysis on Asia-Pacific security issues of interest to the U.S. government. His current research interests include Chinese security policy, China’s military, Asia-Pacific maritime security, and U.S.-China defense relations. A retired U.S. Army colonel, from 2005-2007, he served as the first U.S. Defense Attaché equivalent in Taiwan since 1979, representing U.S. Department of Defense interests there. As an Army aviator and China Foreign Area Officer, he has served in multiple aviation command and staff positions and as an Asia-Pacific strategic planner and analyst. From 2000-2004, Dr. Willner served in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point in various positions including Director, International Relations and National Security Studies, Deputy Head, and faculty member teaching courses in Chinese politics and government, international relations, American politics, and U.S. foreign policy. Following his retirement from the U.S. Army, Dr. Willner held the position of Associate Dean, School of Liberal Arts, at Georgia Gwinnett College. In 2009, he joined CNA, as the Director, China Security Affairs Group, CNA China Studies Division. Dr. Willner is a graduate of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army National Defense University’s International Symposium Course in Beijing and the British Ministry of Defense Language School in Hong Kong, where he studied Mandarin. He is co-editor of China’s Nuclear Future (Lynne Rienner, 2006) and the author or co-author of numerous papers. He received his B.A. in Russian Studies and Political Science from James Madison University and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia.