Dr. Sean McFate is an author and national security strategist. He holds three professorships at Georgetown, the National Defense University, and Syracuse University. Previously, he was a social scientist at RAND and a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Dr. McFate began his career as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, and then became a global private military contractor. He authored The New Rules of War: How America Can Win - Against Russia, China, and Other Threats (2020), named a "Book of the Year" by The Economist. He also wrote The Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order (2015), which Foreign Affairs called "essential reading." Additionally, Dr. McFate is a successful novelist, authoring the Tom Locke series.

Dr. McFate holds a B.A. from Brown University, M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is based in Washington, D.C.