Mackubin “Mac” Owens is Editor of Orbis, FPRI’s quarterly journal of international affairs, and Senior Fellow at its Program on National Security. In addition,  he is a Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. From 1990-97, Dr. Owens was Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly defense journal Strategic Review and Adjunct Professor of International Relations at Boston University; . He served as a Marine infantry platoon commander in Vietnam (1968-69) where he was twice wounded and awarded the Silver Star medal. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve as a Colonel in 1994. Dr. Owens earned his Ph.D. from the University of Dallas, his M.A. in economics from Oklahoma University and his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dr. Owens is a contributing editor to National Review Online. His articles on national security issues have appeared in publications including International Security, Orbis, Armed Forces Journal, Joint Force Quarterly, The Public Interest, The Weekly Standard, Defence Analysis, US Naval Institute Proceedings, Marine Corps Gazette, Comparative Strategy, National Review, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Jerusalem Post, St. Louis Lawyer, the Washington Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is co-editor of the textbook Strategy and Force Planning, now in its fourth edition, and author of the FPRI monograph, Abraham Lincoln: Leadership and Democratic Statesmanship in Wartime (2009) He is currently at work writing two books on American civil-military relations.

Before joining the faculty of the War College, Dr. Owens served as National Security Adviser to Senator Bob Kasten (R-WI) and Director of Legislative Affairs for the Nuclear Weapons Programs of the Department of Energy during the Reagan administration. He has taught at the University of Rhode Island, the University of Dallas, Catholic University, and the Marine Corps’ School of Advanced Warfighting (SAW) He is an adjunct fellow at the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University and has been a program officer for the Smith Richardson Foundation, Senior Visiting Fellow at the Center for Naval Analyses and a consultant to the Los Alamos National Laboratory; Plans Division, Headquarters Marine Corps; and J-5 Strategy, the Joint Staff.