Mark Jbeily

Ensign Mark K. Jbeily is a National Security Fellow with the Clements Center for National Security, an active duty naval officer, and 2015 British Marshall Scholar. A graduate with high honors of the Plan II Honors program at The University of Texas at Austin, Mark is currently pursuing a Master of Philosophy in International Relations at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on reforming national security structures to counter non-traditional security threats. Commissioned in 2015, Mark will attend Navy flight school for training as a naval aviator following graduate study.

Mark served as Battalion Commander of The University of Texas Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps. He previously worked in the Texas Governor’s Office of Homeland Security, assisting senior strategic planners in drafting the 2015-2020 Texas Homeland Security Strategic Plan.  He also interned in The White House Office of Cabinet Affairs as a 2013 Bill Archer Fellow.

At The University of Texas, Mark pursued research on preventive war under Dr. William Inboden at the Clements Center for National Security as a Clements Undergraduate Fellow and with Dr. Jeremi Suri at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law as a Next Generation Scholar. Mark served as a member of the President’s Student Advisory Committee under President Bill Powers and Chairman of AEI On Campus, a non-partisan public policy student forum.

Mark has attended the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Security Forum as a 2015 Aspen Scholar, participated in the International Strategic Crisis Negotiation Exercise hosted by the U.S. Army War College, and studied Arabic in Morocco through the Department of Defense National Security Education Program.  His academic awards and military distinctions include a Liberal Arts Dean’s Distinguished Graduate, Phi Beta Kappa, the Chief of Naval Operations Distinguished Midshipman Graduate, and the National Defense Service Medal.