Benjamin Jensen

Benjamin Jensen is an Adjunct Hurst Professorial Lecturer who has taught and helped develop courses on peace, conflict resolution, foreign policy, and strategy at AU since 2006. Outside of AU, he is a senior fellow for future war, gaming, and strategy in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a professor of strategic studies at the Marine Corps University School of Advanced Warfighting. Dr. Jensen has spent the last decade researching the changing character of political violence, technology, and strategy. He has worked with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, NATO, the U.S. Army, and a range of government agencies and foundations to develop wargames and scenario-driven exercises exploring strategy, defense analysis, crisis response, military planning, and complex emergencies. Outside of traditional defense and security issues, he supported the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in developing a human security assessment framework and a red team manual for early-warning analysts and development practitioners. He is the author of four books including the forthcoming Information at War: Military Innovation, Battle Networks, and the Future of Artificial Intelligence (Georgetown University Press, 2022), Military Strategy in the 21st Century: People, Connectivity, and Competition (Cambria, 2018), Cyber Strategy: The Evolving Character of Power and Coercion (Oxford University Press, 2018), and Forging the Sword: Doctrinal Change in the U.S. Army (Stanford University Press 2016). Most recently, he served as the senior research director and lead author for the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission. He has received support from multiple foundations and government agencies including the Office of Naval Research, OSD Minerva Initiative, Hewlett Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Charles Koch Institute, Smith Richardson Foundation, and Centre national de la recherche scientifique (French National Center for Scientific Research). He is an alumnus of the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies Basin Harbor Workshop, the Bridging the Gap Initiative and the American Academy for Strategic Education. Dr. Jensen is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received his MA and PhD from the American University School of International Service as well as an MS from the National Intelligence University. He is a reserve officer in the U.S. Army with four mobilizations who has commanded at the platoon through battalion level and stood up multiple red teams and joint intelligence organizations linked to Afghanistan and Ukraine.