Mary Habeck is a strategic planner and an expert on military matters, Islam, and extremism.  She teaches on al-Qa’ida and ISIS at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and at Georgetown, while running her consulting firm, Applied Grand Strategies. 

Dr. Habeck is also a Senior Fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute.  From 2005-2013 she was an Associate Professor in Strategic Studies at SAIS, teaching courses on extremism, military history, and strategic thought.  Before moving to SAIS, Dr. Habeck taught American and European military history in Yale’s history department, 1994-2005. 

Dr. Habeck received her Ph.D. in history from Yale in 1996, an MA in international relations from Yale in 1989, and a BA in international studies, Russian, and Spanish from Ohio State in 1987.

Dr. Habeck was appointed by President Bush to the Council on the Humanities at the National Endowment for the Humanities (2006-2013), and in 2008-2009 she was the Special Advisor for Strategic Planning on the National Security Council staff.

In addition to books and articles on doctrine, World War I, the Spanish Civil War, and al-Qa’ida, her publications include the following.

Explore Her Work:

Knowing the Enemy:  Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror (Yale, 2005)

 Attacking America:  Al-Qa’ida’s Grand Strategy (2018)

Managing Savagery: Al-Qa’ida’s Military and Political Strategies (2019)

Fighting the Enemy:  The U.S. and its War against al-Qa’ida (2020).