Daniel E. Curfiss has been with the NESA Center since August of 2005 and is a Professor of Strategic Studies. Before joining the NESA Center he instructed civil servants in Iraq, both at the Ministry of Defense and on the staff of the Iraqi National Security Advisor, in capacity-building, policy development and matters of national security policy and strategy.

Immediately after retiring from the U.S. Marine Corps he worked in Nigeria from August of 2002 until February of 2004 on the Nigeria Civil-Military Assistance Program Combined Action Team of senior officers from the Nigerian Armed Forces and retired senior military officers from the United States Armed Forces in a joint U.S./Nigeria venture created to help democratize the Ministry of Defense and revitalize the Nigerian Armed Forces. Prof. Curfiss is also a member of the Marine Corps History Foundation’s General Wallace M. Greene Award Committee. This committee annually selects the book determined by the committee to best describe Marine Corps heritage, relevance to U.S. national interests and defense activities published during the given year of selection and is presented to the author by the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

Prof. Curfiss is a retired United States Marine Corps infantry officer having spent 28 years on active duty, and he is a veteran of both Vietnam and Gulf War I. He commanded infantry units at the rifle and reconnaissance platoon, rifle company, infantry battalion and Marine Expeditionary Unit levels. He also lived in Jubail, Saudi Arabia while serving as the senior advisor to the brigade commander of the first brigade of Saudi marines after Desert Storm.

Areas of Expertise

National Security Policy and Strategy

Stability and Reconstruction Operations

Foreign relations and security issues

Counter-Insurgency Operations

Education

M.S., Military Science, U.S. Army Command and Staff College

Operational Level of War, U.S. Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School

B.A., History, Ohio State University