DAVID W. BARNO
Lieutenant General David W. Barno (USA, Ret.) is Senior Advisor and Senior Fellow at the Center for New American Security (CNAS). Previously, General Barno served as Director of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University (NDU) and before that, as Commander of the 20,000 US and Coalition Forces in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
While serving in Afghanistan, General Barno was selected to establish a new three-star operational headquarters and given command responsibility for the overall political-military mission, reporting to US Central Command for regional efforts in Afghanistan, most of Pakistan and the southern parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The post represented the culmination of a thirty-year military career spanning three conflicts and deployments on four continents, including many years service in special operations forces with Army Ranger battalions, including combat during the Grenada and Panama invasions.
General Barno served as an informal advisor to the Obama Presidential Transition Team for Defense following the 2008 Presidential Election and provides periodic advice to the National Security Council Staff, National Intelligence Council, and Defense Policy Board on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Counter-Insurgency and Irregular Warfare. In 2008-09, General Barno also served as a Senior Advisor to General Petraeus’ CENTCOM Assessment Team led by Colonel H.R. McMaster.
In April 2009 General Barno completed a two-year term as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom Veterans and Families, reporting to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on the unique challenges faced by military veterans and families of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has lectured at Harvard, Yale, Tufts, Johns Hopkins SAIS, NYU Center on Law and Security, West Point and the US Army, Air and Naval War Colleges, as well as number of overseas think tanks and universities. His media appearances have included NPR, Voice of America, the Charlie Rose Show, FOX News and C-SPAN.
General Barno was commissioned as an Infantry Officer from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He holds a Master of Arts degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University and is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and the US Army War College. He is also a graduate of the Syracuse University/Johns Hopkins National Security Leadership Program.