Over the past twenty years, the United States has been involved in a range of conflicts, placing significant demands on the individuals who are deployed, often multiple times. These individuals have borne the brunt of civilian decisions regarding when, how and where to use force, as well as what the goals of these conflicts should be. The challenges of war are not often well communicated to civilian policymakers. This series seeks to engage with military personnel and gain a broader perspective of the challenges they face.
About the Speaker
Austin Long is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Nuclear Security Policy (CNSP) within the MIT Security Studies Program (SSP). Long previously served as a member of the Senior Executive Service on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As Deputy Director of Strategic Stability within the Strategy, Plans And Policy Directorate, he was responsible for the formulation of Joint Staff positions and recommendations regarding strategy, plans and policy for strategic deterrence, space, cyberspace, electromagnetic spectrum operations, information operations, nuclear, missile defense, countering weapons of mass destruction, subsea and seabed warfare, arms control and other international negotiations. He was previously vice deputy director for strategic stability.
Prior to joining the Joint Staff, Long was a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation and an associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He was an analyst and adviser to the U.S. military in Iraq (2007-2008) and Afghanistan (2011 and 2013). In 2014-2015, he was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in Nuclear Security, serving in the Joint Staff J5.
Long’s research has appeared in International Security, Security Studies, the Journal of Strategic Studies, the Journal of Cold War Studies, Orbis, the Journal of Cybersecurity, Texas National Security Review, and Survival. He is also the author of The Soul of Armies: Counterinsurgency Doctrine and Military Culture in the United States and United Kingdom (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2016) and co-editor (with Charles L. Glaser and Brian Radzinsky) of Managing U.S. Nuclear Operations in the 21st Century (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2022).
Long received his B.S. from the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This event is generously sponsored by the Institute for Public Leadership.