Leo Blanken, Assistant Professor

Leo Blanken joined Defense Analysis in the summer of 2008. He received a BA from the University of San Francisco, an MA from Columbia University, and a PhD in political science from the University of California at Davis. His dissertation on patterns of imperial expansion received the best dissertation award from the Western Political Science Association, and is forthcoming from University of Chicago Press as Rational Empires: Institutional Incentives and Imperial Expansion. His current research focuses on the challenges of military intelligence and metrics in counterinsurgency operations and theoretical issues surrounding conventional force structure planning.

Department of Defense Analysis
Naval Postgraduate School
Root Hall, Room 221
589 Dyer Road
Monterey, CA 93943

 

Email: ljblanke [at] nps [dot] edu

See a PDF of my CV here.

Leo is a USA Boxing certified trainer and helps kids learn the basics of boxing by volunteering at Pacific Coast Boxing in Pacific Grove, CA.

He also collects and DJs rare soul and funk records from the 1960s and 1970s. He is part of the Soul Lotto crew of DJs based in England, and some of his sets can be accessed at www.soullotto.com.

 

• Military intelligence in a COIN environment
• The impact of imperfect metrics of progress and performance in a COIN environment
• Modeling the strategic implications of military technology diffusion
• Utilizing game theoretic concepts and tools to refine military strategic choice