Dean Ballard has been an asset to the War College and a good friend of the NWCAA and we congratulate him as he moves on to the next step on his career. Dean Ballard was the not only the Dean of Faculty at the National War College, he also served as a Professor of Strategic Studies at NWC. His other former positions included: Academic Dean at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, Professor of Joint Military Operations at the Naval War College, Foundation Professor and Chair of Defence Studies at New Zealand's Massey University, and Professor of History and Strategy at the Joint Forces Staff College. Ballard holds a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, a master’s degree from California State University, a doctorate from Catholic University; he also is a recipient of the Brevet d'études militaires supérieures (B.E.M.S.) from the École Supérieure de Guerre in Paris, France.
A former Marine who served in the Iraq War, Dean Ballard finished his military career in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon after having served on Service, Joint Task Force and Unified Command Staffs; he also brings experience commanding at the battalion and group levels to the new UAE National Defense College.
In addition to being well-represented in academic journals such as Small Wars and Insurgencies, Joint Force Quarterly, Military Review, the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, and the Marine Corps Gazette, Dean Ballard has published a number of books: Upholding Democracy (Praeger, 1997), Continuity during the Storm (Greenwood, 2000), Fighting for Fallujah (Praeger Security International, 2006), Triumph of Self-Determination (Praeger Security International, 2008), From Storm to Freedom, the Long American War with Iraq (Naval Institute Press, 2010), and From Kabul to Baghdad and Back, the U.S. at War in Afghanistan and Iraq (Naval Institute Press, 2012). These works can be found on the publications page of our website.