Strategic Studies Faculty

Eliot A. Cohen is the Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the Johns Hopkins University and founding director of the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies there.   As of May 1, 2007, Professor Cohen is on leave of absence to the State Department serving as Counselor of the Department.  A graduate of Harvard College, he received his Ph.D. in political science at Harvard in 1982.   He subsequently taught there and at the Naval War College (Department of Strategy).  After serving on the policy planning staff of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Dr. Cohen came to SAIS in 1990.   He has written books and articles on a variety of military and national security-related subjects, including, most recently Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime (Free Press, 2002).  He has written or co-authored other books including Military Misfortunes:  The Anatomy of Failure in War, and directed the US Air Force’s official multi-volume study of the Gulf War, the Gulf War Air Power Survey.  He has an extensive background in executive education, to include programs for general officers in the American armed forces and senior executives in the private sector.  He has served as an intelligence officer in the United States Army Reserve, and as a member of the Defense Policy Advisory Board of the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Thomas Keaney is the acting director of the Merrill Center and a senior adjunct professor of strategic studies. Before coming to SAIS in 1998, he was a professor of military strategy at National War College, Washington DC, and director of its core courses on military thought and strategy. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan.  A retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force, during his military career he served in positions including: associate professor of history at the U.S. Air Force Academy; planner on the Air Staff; forward air controller in Vietnam; and B-52 squadron commander.  During 1991 and 1992 he was a researcher/author with the Gulf War Air Power Survey.  He was co-author of two reports of that survey: The Summary Report and The Effects and Effectiveness of Air Power.  Among recent publications are Revolution in Warfare?: Air Power in the Persian Gulf (with Eliot A. Cohen); ed. with Barry Rubin, US Allies in a Changing World (2001) and Armed Forces in the Middle East, Politics and Strategy (2002); and War in Iraq: Planning and Operations (ed. with Thomas Mahnken, 2007).   

Mark F. Cancian is Chief of the Force Structure and Investment Branch at the Office of Management and Budget.  He received his B.A. in History from Harvard College and his MBA from Harvard Business School.  Previously he served on various weapons acquisition and analysis staffs in the Pentagon, and as assistant staff director of the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces.  During a period out of government he ran research and executive education programs as the Assistant Director, National Security Programs, Kennedy School of Government. He also served 34 years (active and reserve) as an infantry and artillery officer in the United States Marine Corps including service in Iraq (two tours), Desert Storm and the evacuation of Vietnam. He is the author of numerous articles on military strategy, history, weapons acquisition, and force structure.

Brady Cusick earned a PhD in cultural anthropology from Boston University in 2005, with a focus on political and psychological anthropology, civil society, and Japan.   He was a visiting researcher at Osaka University from 2002–2003 while doing dissertation fieldwork on Japanese civil society and voluntary organizations.  This research was funded by a National Security Education Program's David Boren Graduate Fellowship and an earlier language fellowship from the Japan Foundation.  While a graduate student, he taught several courses in cultural anthropology at Boston University and was a lecturer on Japanese culture at MIT.  He also served as a teaching assistant in Harvard University's Core Curriculum and was awarded a certificate of distinction in teaching by the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.  Since 2004, he has worked to provide cultural perspectives to a variety of government and military agencies.

Thomas Ehrhard is Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.  Prior to his retirement from the Air Force in 2006, Colonel Ehrhard served as the military assistant to Andrew W. Marshall, the Secretary of Defense’s Principle Advisor for Net Assessment. During his 26 years active service, Ehrhard worked in key Air Staff assignments in the Pentagon, including one as chief of the “Skunk Works” (Strategy, Concepts, & Doctrine Division) and as a division chief on the Air Force’s 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review staff. He earned his Ph.D. in international relations at Johns Hopkins SAIS, where he researched the development and integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the US armed forces, the intelligence community, and Israel.  Dr. Ehrhard has previously taught at the Air Force's School for Advanced Air and Space Studies and the Air Force Academy, and has lectured at Georgetown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  His recent published works include “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the United States Armed Services: A Comparative Study of Weapon System Innovation,” (Johns Hopkins SAIS) and “Making the Connection: An Air Strategy Analysis Framework,” (Air University)

Thomas E. Griffith, Jr. is the Dean of Faculty and Academic Programs at the National War College, Fort McNair, DC.  He is responsible for educating future leaders of the armed forces, Department of State, and other civilian agencies for high-level policy, command, and staff responsibilities. Previously, he headed the US Air Force’s elite school for strategists, the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies.  He has been a group commander, has over 2,000 hours of flying time in the F-4 and the F-15E, and was a special assistant to the Air Force chief of staff and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  He flew in the initial air strikes of Operation Desert Storm and was later captured and held as a prisoner of war.  After repatriation and recovery he attended the University of North Carolina and earned a doctoral degree in history.  He has published articles on variety of topics including, targeting strategies, the use of airpower in Afghanistan, and military innovation.  He is the author of MacArthur’s Airman: General George C. Kenney and the War in the Southwest Pacific.

Mary R. Habeck is an Associate Professor in Strategic Studies.  As of December 1, 2007, Professor Habeck is on leave of absence to the National Security Council staff.  She received her Ph.D. from Yale University and was an associate professor at Yale for eleven years prior to joining the team at SAIS.  Dr. Habeck also coordinated the Yale Russian Archive Project to facilitate access to documents in the former Soviet archives.  She is the recipient of the 2001-02 Morse Fellowship and has numerous publications.  Her latest work is on jihadism and her book Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror was published by Yale Press in November 2005.  Dr. Habeck is an expert on military history, strategic thought, radical Islam and the war on terror.

Andrew Hoehn is currently the Director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program as part of Project Air Force, a division of the RAND Corporation.  In this capacity, he is responsible for overseeing studies and providing advice to senior Air Force leaders on geopolitical changes, shifts in the conduct of warfare, strategy and doctrine, and new environments for aerospace operations.  Mr. Hoehn previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy from 1998-2004, receiving the Distinguished Civilian Service Award for his acomplishments. He has also held various positions within the Office of the Secretary of Defense dealing with Strategy, Policy and Threat Reduction.  Mr. Hoehn received his Masters degree from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public and International Affairs, focusing on international security policy and political  economy, and has written numerous articles in professional military journals, monographs, and books.

Matthew Levitt is a senior fellow and director of The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. He is also a professorial lecturer in International Relations and Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). From 2005 to early 2007, Levitt served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, he served both as a senior official within the department's terrorism and financial intelligence branch and as deputy chief of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, one of sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies coordinated under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.  Previously, Levitt provided tactical and strategic analytical support for counterterrorism operations at the FBI, focusing on fundraising and logistical support networks for Middle Eastern terrorist groups. During his FBI service, Dr. Levitt participated as a team member in a number of crisis situations, including the terrorist threat surrounding the turn of the millennium and the September 11 attacks. He has earned numerous awards and commendations for his government service at both the FBI and the Treasury Department.

An expert witness for the Department of Justice in several terrorism cases, Dr. Levitt has also lectured on international terrorism on behalf of the Departments of State, Defense and Homeland Security, consulted for various U.S. government agencies and private industry, and testified before the Senate and House on matters relating to international terrorism. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the international advisory board for both the Institute for Counter-terrorism in Israel and the International Centre for Political Violence & Terrorism Research in Singapore, and an adjunct fellow with the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point).  Dr. Levitt has written extensively on terrorism, the Middle East, and Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, and is a frequent commentator for the national and international media. His latest books include "Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad" (Yale University Press, 2006) and "Negotiating Under Fire: Preserving Peace Talks in the Face of Terror Attacks" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008).

John E. McLaughlin is Professorial Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow of Strategic Studies of the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies.  Mr. McLaughlin, who recently retired as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, will present seminars on intelligence and policy, participate in strategic studies courses involving intelligence analysis, in general join in Merrill Center activities.  He will be available to consult with students who wish to learn more about the intelligence career field.  Mr. McLaughlin had served in the Central Intelligence Agency since 1972.  In that time, he was a member of the Directorate of Intelligence on European, Russian, and Eurasian affairs, served a tour in the state Department, and founded the Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis, an institution dedicated to teaching the history, mission, and essential skills of the analytic profession to new CIA employees.  He had been the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence since 2000, during which time he represented the Intelligence Community at meetings of the National Security Council Deputies Committee, in briefings with the President, and at hearings on Capitol Hill.  He served as Acting Director of Central Intelligence from July to September 2004.  Mr. McLaughlin is a SAIS graduate with a specialty in European Affairs, studying both in Washington and at the Bologna campus.