Tom A. Marks

Dr. Thomas A. Marks, Associate Scholar at FPRI’s Center on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism, and Homeland Security, is head of the Irregular Warfare Department at the College of International Security Affairs (CISA) of the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, DC and the author of Maoist People’s War in Post-Vietnam Asia (Bangkok: White Lotus, 2007). A former U.S. government officer who is a member of the editorial board of Small Wars and Insurgencies (London), he previously served as the Oppenheimer Chair of Warfighting Strategy at the Marine Corps University (Quantico), where he taught Insurgency and Operational Art. He is an Adjunct Professor at the U.S. Joint Special Operations University (JSOU, Hurlburt Field, FL) and for 2006 was awarded Educator of the Year.

Marks graduated from the United States Military Academy and in his Ph.D. work at the University of Hawaii focused on the relationship between popular upheaval and revolutionary crisis (published as Making Revolution: The Insurgency of the Communist Party of Thailand in Structural Perspective, Bangkok: White Lotus, 1994). His follow-on Maoist Insurgency Since Vietnam (London: Frank Cass, 1996) was honored as a Choice Outstanding Academic Book selection; and was complemented by Counter-Revolution in China: Wang Sheng and the Kuomintang (London: Cass, 1997). His latest monographs, all published by the U.S. Army War College (Carlisle), are: Colombian Army Adaptation to FARC Insurgency (2002), Insurgency in Nepal (2003), and Sustainability of Colombian Military/Strategic Support for ‘Democratic Security’ (2005). His most recent field service, in a contract capacity prior to joining CISA, was as operations consultant for a newly raised Saudi Arabian commando unit.