About
AT A GLANCE:
Non-Resident Fellow, Editor-in-Chief, PRISM: The Journal of Complex Operations, Irregular
Warfare Center
RESEARCH AREAS:
- Narrative warfare
- Influence tradecraft
- Cognititve warfare
- Use of AI and emerging technologies to achieve kinetic and non-kinetic effects
BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Pennell is a retired US Senior Foreign Service Officer (Minister-Counselor rank)
with 20+ years of field experience in all regions of the world including in active
combat and/or hybrid warfare zones. Currently, Dr. Pennell is a contractor with the
U.S. Department of War’s (DoW) Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) as Editor-in-Chief of
PRISM: The Journal of Complex Operations and as an Instructor, Course Designer, and Senior Scholar. He’s a Research Fellow
with Arizona State University’s (ASU) Future Security Initiative and Professor of
Practice with ASU’s School of Politics and Global Studies; a Non-Resident Fellow with
the Irregular Warfare Institute (IWI)-Europe Program; and a Senior Diplomacy Fellow
with Narrative-Strategies. Dr. Pennell is also a guest speaker and lecturer on information
operations, hybrid warfare, and new technologies with U.S. and international universities,
the U.S. State Department, and U.S. professional military education institutions.
He’s a published author, including a 2024 book on Russia’s irregular activities in
Syria and Ukraine. He holds a PhD from King’s College London and masters degrees from
the National War College and American University. Lastly, he’s a lifetime member of
the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) and Information Professionals Association
(IPA).
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