Stephen Biddle

Stephen Biddle is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs. His research seeks to bridge the divide between policy and scholarship, using the methods of modern social science to explain underlying causal relationships on which defense policy positions rest.

His book Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle (Princeton Univ. Pr., 2004) won four prizes, including the Harvard University Huntington Prize and the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Award Silver Medal.

His other publications include articles in International Security, Foreign Affairs, Survival, The Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Security Studies, The Journal of Strategic Studies, The New Republic, The American Interest, The National Interest, Joint Force Quarterly, and Military Operations Research; shorter pieces in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, the Suddeutsche Zeitung, and the Guardian; various chapters in edited volumes; and 31 Institute for Defense Analyses, Army War College, and NATO reports.

Professor Biddle has presented testimony before congressional committees on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, force planning, net assessment, and European arms control. He served on General David Petraeus’ Joint Strategic Assessment Team in Baghdad in 2007, on General Stanley McChrystal’s Initial Strategic Assessment Team in Kabul in 2009, and as a Senior Advisor to General Petraeus’ Central Command Assessment Team in Washington in 2008-9. His research has won Barchi, Rist, and Impact Prizes from the Military Operations Research Society. He was awarded the U.S. Army Superior Civilian Service Medal in 2003 and 2006, and was presented with the U.S. Army Commander’s Award for Public Service in Baghdad in 2007.

Before joining the GW faculty in 2012 he was Roger Hertog Senior Fellow for Defense Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, and previously held the Elihu Root Chair in Military Studies at the U.S. Army War College, as well as teaching and research positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Institute for Defense Analyses, and Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.