Barak Salmoni
- Outside Authors
- Visiting Defense Fellow
Barak Salmoni is a visiting defense fellow at The Washington Institute. An expert in the intrastate conflicts, regional rivalries, and military capabilities of Muslim societies, Dr. Salmoni served most recently as a political scientist at the RAND Corporation. There, he supported the intelligence community, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the uniformed services.
Prior to joining RAND, Dr. Salmoni was the founder and deputy director of the Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning at the Marine Corps Training and Education Command. In that capacity, he planned and oversaw the training and educational programs of the center, which specialized in providing culture and language education for global Marine Corps deployments. From 2003 to 2007, Dr. Salmoni also actively trained deploying Marines and soldiers on Iraqi culture, mores, and public sentiments. He worked in Iraq with American forces on five separate occasions from 2004 to 2008.
Dr. Salmoni was previously on the faculty of the Naval Postgraduate School, and taught at Harvard University, Holy Cross College, the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, and Moravian College. He has lectured at the National Defense University, Marine Corps University, the Joint Forces Staff College, the Naval War College, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the Defense Academy of the United Kingdom.
Education: Ph.D., history and Middle East studies, Harvard University; M.A., modern Middle East, Brandeis University; B.A., Brandeis University
Languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Persian, French
Selected Outside Publications:
• "Developing Strategic Leaders for Future Conflict," Parameters, Spring 2010. • Regime & Periphery in Northern Yemen: The Huthi Phenomenon (MG-962-DIA). • Operational Culture for the Warfighter: Principles and Applications, with Paula Holmes-Eber (Marine Corps University Press, 2008). • "Operational Culture for Marines," with Paula Holmes-Eber, Marine Corps Gazette, March 2008. • Pedagogy for the Long War: Teaching Irregular Warfare, editor (Marine Corps Training and Education Command, 2008). • "Iraq," Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World, 2008 edition. • "The Fallacy of 'Irregular' Warfare," Royal United Services Institute Journal, August 2007. • "Advances in Pre-Deployment Culture Training: the USMC Approach," Military Review 2006. • "Culture as an Open System: Social Intelligence, Human Terrain, and Counter-Insurgency," with W.D. Casebeer, American Intelligence Journal, Summer 2006. • "Islamization and American Policy," in James A. Russell, ed., Critical Issues Facing the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). • Re-Envisioning Egypt, 1919-1952, editor with Arthur Goldschmidt and Amy Johnson (American University in Cairo Press, 2005).
Translations:
• "An Outline of the Most Superior Fundamentals in the Art of Kidnapping Americans," Arabic-English, Strategic Insight, February 2005.
• "Yusuf Akcura's Three Ways of Politics," Turkish-English, Modern Middle East Source Book, 2000.