Lonn Waters

Expertise

• Counterinsurgency
• Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) trend analysis
• Operations in Afghanistan
• Operations in Iraq
• Analytic support to naval exercises

Lonn Waters is an analyst with CNA Strategic Studies’ Stability and Development Program where he focuses on counterinsurgency and stability operations. In 2009-2010, he deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan to support the Combined Joint Task Force PALADIN, and the Counter-Improvised Device (C-IED) Task Force, by conducting operations research and geospatial analyses to measure IED trends and activity. Waters’ work at CNA headquarters focuses on providing analytic support to the Marine Corps in Afghanistan and Iraq with studies on tribal militias, conscription for the Afghan army, management/governance of socio-cultural research and analysis within DoD, withdrawing from Iraq, and local assessments of south/west Afghanistan. Prior to joining CNA, he served as a Presidential Management Fellow with U.S. Joint Forces Command.

Recent Work: Assessment of conscription and the Afghan Army, analytic support to U.S. counter-piracy exercises in Africa; governance of socio-cultural research and analysis within DoD; operations research and geospatial analysis of IED trends in Afghanistan; withdrawal from Iraq; disbanding tribal militias; Afghanistan district studies.

Previous Positions: Deputy ORSA and Chief Research Analyst, Combined Joint Task Force PALADIN, Interagency Training Requirements Officer at U.S. Joint Forces Command; Presidential Management Fellow at U.S. Joint Forces Command (Joint Staff J-5, Joint Warfare Analysis Center, Special Assistant to Commander of Joint Forces Command, Joint Center for Operational Analysis)

Education: M.S. in Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies, Naval War College; B.A. in Politics, Princeton University.