Dr. Thomas G. Mahnken is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He has worked in defense planning and international strategy for over 20 years, and has served as an Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Dr. Thomas G. Mahnken is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He is a Senior Research Professor at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at The Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
His previous government career includes service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning, where he helped craft the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review and 2008 National Defense Strategy. He served on the staff of the 2014 National Defense Panel, 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel, and the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. He served in the Defense Department’s Office of Net Assessment and as a member of the Gulf War Air Power Survey. Prior to his career in government, he served for over 20 years as an Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, including tours in Iraq and Kosovo.
He currently serves as a member of the Congressionally-mandated National Defense Strategy Commission and as a member of the Board of Visitors of Marine Corps University.
In 2009 he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service and in 2016 the Department of the Navy Superior Civilian Service Medal.
His expertise are focused on defense planning, future warfare, intelligence, international strategic studies and strategy.
Dr. Mahnken is the author of Strategy in Asia: The Past, Present and Future of Regional Security, Competitive Strategies for the 21st Century: Theory, History, and Practice, Technology and the American Way of War Since 1945, and Uncovering Ways of War: U.S. Intelligence and Foreign Military Innovation, 1918–1941, among other works.
He has an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Paul. H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at John Hopkins University in International Affairs, and a B.A. from the University of Southern California in International Relations and History.