Liam Collins is the executive director of the Madison Policy Forum, asenior fellow at New America, and a permanent member with the Councilon Foreign Relations. He retired as a colonel from the U.S. Army after 27years of service. As a career special forces officer, he conducted multipleoperational and combat deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, SouthAmerica, and the Horn of Africa. He was the founding director of theModern War Institute and a former director of the Combating TerrorismCenter at West Point. He is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of U.S.Counterterrorism and Irregular Warfare Operations. He earned a Bachelor ofScience degree in Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace) from the UnitedStates Military Academy, and a master in public affairs and a PhD fromPrinceton University's School of Public and International Affairs.
John Spencer is an award-winning scholar, professor, author, combatveteran, and internationally recognized expert and advisor on urban warfareand other military related topics. Considered the world's leading expert onurban warfare, he served as an advisor to the top four-star general andother senior leaders in the U.S. Army as part of strategic research groupsfrom the Pentagon and the United States Military Academy. Spencer is theChair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point,co-director of the Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban WarfareProject podcast. He is also the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies with theMadison Policy Forum and a Colonel in the California State Guard withassignment to the 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guardas the Director of Urban Warfare Training. Serving over twenty-five years inthe active Army as an infantry soldier, Spencer has held ranks from privateto sergeant first class and second lieutenant to major. His assignments asan officer included combat deployments to Iraq as a platoon leader andcompany commander; an instructor in the U.S. Army's Ranger School; aJoint Chief of Staff and Army staff intern; fellow with the Chief of Staff of the Army's Strategic Studies Group; and co-founder, strategic planner,and deputy director of the Modern War Institute at West Point.
