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Young Strategic Leaders Forum
July Seminar

Future Allied Strategy in the Western Pacific

Dr Thomas Mahnken
Professor of Economic Geography and National Security at the US Naval War College and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning

and

David W. Hamon
Until recently Chief of Policy and Strategic Studies at the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency and formerly served in the  Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Thomas G. Mahnken is currently Jerome E. Levy Chair of Economic Geography and National Security at the U.S. Naval War College and a Visiting Scholar at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at The Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Dr. Mahnken served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning from 2006-2009. In that capacity, he was responsible for the Department’s major strategic planning functions, including the preparation of guidance for war plans and the development of the defense planning scenarios.

Mr Hamon has twenty-five years of progressive experience in public service, sixteen in international affairs. He recently com pleted secondment as Chief of Policy and Strategy Studies of the “in-house think tank" within the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), supporting DoD an d the interagency. He served as Regional Director of Strategy and Planning for Office of the Secretary of Defense, African Affairs, and has worked in the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping and for UN Humanitarian Organizations in the areas of operational policies, planning, logistics, and civil-military cooperatio n. At ANSER he worked on projects related to emerging and non-traditional threats. Mr. Hamon serves on UNFPA Security Sector, CIA S tate Failure, and Threat Reduction in new NATO countries Work Groups. He serves as an advisor to DTRA/ASCO, Argonne National Laboratory/U of Chicago’s Threat Anticipation Center and also serves as a strategic advisor to OSD, the US Navy, and UNAIDS organization on HIV/AIDS prevention program for militaries.