Rick Brennan, Jr

Rick Brennan is an adjunct political scientist at the RAND Corporation and a career Army officer with high-level Department of Defense experience on issues relating to the war in Iraq, conflict resolution, homeland defense, and strategic planning. Brennan joined RAND in 1999 and since 2006 he has served in successive positions in Iraq to include supporting MNF-I/USF-I as the RAND team leader for the Joint Interagency Task Force-Iraq (JIATF-I) and as the senior advisor to the USF-I director of Operations (J3). Starting in 2016 he served as the lead strategy and policy subject matter expert working on the Iraq Defense Governance Management Team (DGMT). He has conducted significant research and analysis on the transition from military operations to civilian control in Iraq between 2003 and 2012. He has led and participated in several other RAND studies related to homeland security, homeland defense, and military transformation.

Prior to joining RAND, Brennan served as a program manager directing projects related to the Revolution in Military Affairs for OSD (Net Assessment). He is a former Army officer, who, in addition to infantry command and staff positions, spent six years in positions related to national security and defense policy, including two years working within the Office of the Secretary of Defense and three years serving as an assistant professor at the United States Military Academy. A decorated officer, Brennan received the Defense Superior Service Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Army Meritorious Service Medal (3 awards), and the Army Commendation Medal. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from UCLA.