Ryan Shaw is a Professor of Practice in History and Strategy, Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives, and Senior University Advisor at Arizona State University. In addition to advising on organizational strategy and leadership, he works to advance ASU’s connections to the national security enterprise through partnerships and projects including the Competitive Statecraft Initiative and Security & Defence PLuS—a collaboration between ASU, King’s College London, and the University of New South Wales.
Prior to joining ASU, Dr. Shaw served as an officer in the U.S. Army. He earned his commission from the U.S. Military Academy, where he majored in American Politics. After early service as an armor officer, including commanding a cavalry troop in Iraq’s Anbar Province, he returned to West Point as an Assistant Professor of American History. As an Army Strategist, he led strategic planning and assessment efforts and provided strategic advice to leaders at the highest levels of U.S. and multinational military organizations. His assignments included Strategic Advisor to the Commander of NORAD & U.S. Northern Command; Director of Plans and Assessments in the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authorities; and Special Advisor to the 19th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Dr. Shaw holds a PhD and MA in History from Yale University and is a graduate of strategic education programs at Yale and the U.S. Army War College. His scholarship spans grand strategy and strategic theory, competitive statecraft and irregular warfare, 19th-century American military history, and the history of the American West. He serves as an editor for Small Wars Journal and Inter Populum: The Journal of Irregular Warfare and Special Operations, and is also an International Security Fellow at New America and an Expert-in-Residence at the University Design Institute.