Thomas A. Marks, Ph.D.
Department Head and Professor
Department of War and Conflict Studies

Education

• Ph.D., University of Hawaii
• M.A., University of Hawaii
• B.A., United States Military Academy

Thomas A. Marks, Ph.D., is the author of Maoist People’s War in Post-Vietnam Asia (2007), considered the current standard on the subject of "people’s war." A former U.S. government officer who is a member of the editorial board of Small Wars and Insurgencies (London), he previously served as the Oppenheimer Chair of Warfighting Strategy at the Marine Corps University (Quantico). His last field service, in a contract capacity prior to joining NDU, was as the operations consultant for a newly raised Saudi Arabian commando unit. Marks is an Adjunct Professor at the USAF Special Operations School (AFSOS, Hurlburt Field, Fla.), and in 2006 was awarded Educator of the Year. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, he focused his Ph.D. work at the University of Hawaii on the relationship between popular upheaval and revolutionary crisis, published as "Making Revolution: The Insurgency of the Communist Party of Thailand in Structural Perspective," in 1994; his M.A. thesis was published as "The British Acquisition of Siamese Malaya, 1896-1909," in 1997. His follow-on, Maoist Insurgency Since Vietnam (1996) was honored as a Choice Outstanding Academic Book selection; it was complemented the next year by Counter-Revolution in China: Wang Sheng and the Kuomintang (1997). Included among his hundreds of publications are three much-cited monographs, all from the U.S. Army War College (Carlisle): Colombian Army Adaptation to FARC Insurgency (2002), Insurgency in Nepal (2003), and Sustainability of Colombian Military/Strategic Support for “Democratic Security” (2005).