Ben Connable is an American retired

Marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

Major, military strategist and Professor at the

Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School The Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School (Pardee RAND) is a private graduate school associated with the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. The school offers doctoral studies in policy analysis and practical experience working on RAN ...

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

Early life

Ben Connable graduated from the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

.RAND Corporation biography
/ref> He received a master's degree in Strategic Intelligence from the American Military University and a master's degree in National Security Affairs from the

Naval Postgraduate School The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is a public graduate school operated by the United States Navy and located in Monterey, California. It offers master’s and doctoral degrees in more than 70 fields of study to the U.S. Armed Forces, DOD ci ...

Monterey, California Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...

. He also attended the War Studies program at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

, where he earned a PhD

Career

He is a retired Major of the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

, having served in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

with the

.Ben Connable
A Marine sees what defeatists don't
''USA Today'', May 18, 2004 He now serves as Professor at the

. He has been published in ''

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

'', ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'', etc. On the United States's defeat of

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

, he has suggested looking at the broader picture, by focusing on a national reconciliation between Sunnis, Shias and Kurds.Ben Connable
Defeating the Islamic State in Iraq: Testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
RAND Corporation, September 2014

Bibliography

*''How Insurgencies End'' (with Martin C. Libicki, RAND Corporation, 2010). *''Military Intelligence Fusion for Complex Operations: A New Paradigm'' (RAND Corporation, 2012). *''Embracing the Fog of War: Assessment and Metrics in Counterinsurgency'' (RAND Corporation, 2012). *''Assessing Freedom of Movement for Counterinsurgency Campaigns'' (RAND Corporation, 2012). *''Leveraging Development Aid to Address Root Causes in Counterinsurgency: Balancing Theory and Practice in"Hold" and "Build".'' (RAND Corporation, 2013). *''Modeling, Simulation, and Operations Analysis in Afghanistan and Iraq'' (RAND Corporation, 2014). *''Defeating the Islamic State in Iraq'' (RAND Corporation, 2014).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Connable, Ben Living people University of Colorado Boulder alumni Naval Postgraduate School alumni Alumni of King's College London United States Marine Corps officers RAND Corporation people Year of birth missing (living people)