Kimberly Kagan
Military historian and founder of the Institute for the Study of War
| Kimberly Kagan
| |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Military historian; think-tank president |
| Known for | Founder and president of the Institute for the Study of War |
| Spouse(s) | Frederick Kagan |
| Education | Yale University (BA in classical civilisation; PhD in military history) |
| Website | https://understandingwar.org/people/kimberly-kagan/ |
Kimberly Kagan is a military historian and the founder and president of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), established in 2007. She has taught at West Point, Yale University, Georgetown University and American University, and has combined writing on military history with advisory work for senior United States commanders.[1][2]
Kagan and her husband, Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute, worked as civilian advisers to David Petraeus in Afghanistan. Reporting on this arrangement examined their access to commanders and classified intelligence, their role in public debate about the war, and ISW's support from defence contractors.[3]
Education and academic work
According to her Institute for the Study of War biography, Kagan received a BA in classical civilisation and a PhD in military history from Yale University, held an Andrew W. Mellon fellowship in humanistic studies, and held Olin postdoctoral fellowships in strategic studies at Yale and Harvard University. Her teaching appointments have included West Point, Georgetown University and American University.[1]
Her books include The Eye of Command (2006), The Surge: A Military History (2009), and the edited collection The Imperial Moment (2010). She also co-produced the documentary The Surge: The Whole Story, about the Iraq campaign of 2007–2008.[1]
Institute for the Study of War
Kagan founded the Institute for the Study of War in May 2007, according to its own 2011 annual report.[4] Its institutional history places its origins in real-time analysis of the Iraq war during the United States troop surge. The organisation subsequently developed research programmes on Afghanistan, Syria, Russia and Ukraine, and China and Taiwan.[2]
ISW's personnel directory consulted in November 2026 continued to identify her as president and founder. It also identified partnerships with the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project, directed by Frederick Kagan, and its Coalition Defense of Taiwan, led by Dan Blumenthal.[5]
Kagan co-founded and teaches ISW's Hertog War Studies Program, an educational programme for undergraduates. ISW dates the programme's launch to 2013.[1][2]
Military advisory roles
The following appointments and activities are described in Kagan's institutional biography. The date ranges relate to the specified activities, rather than to continuous government employment.[1]
| Period | Role or activity |
|---|---|
| May 2007–April 2010 | Repeated battlefield visits to Iraq during the commands of David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno |
| October 2008 and October 2009 | Joint Campaign Plan Assessment Team for Multi-National Force – Iraq and the United States mission in Iraq |
| January 2009 | Civilian advisory team for a United States Central Command strategic review |
| June–July 2009 | Stanley McChrystal's strategic assessment team in Kabul |
| 2010–2012 | Assistance to International Security Assistance Force commanders Petraeus and John Allen in Kabul |
| 2018–2019 | Member of the congressionally appointed Syria Study Group |
Afghanistan: access and accountability
In a December 2011 account in the Institute for the Study of War's annual report, Kagan wrote that she had returned that September from a 15-month deployment assisting David Petraeus and John Allen with the design and implementation of the military campaign. The report states that charitable support allowed its scholars to deploy without government salaries and outside the chain of command, and Kagan's presidential letter credits donors with enabling deployments and research visits. These are the organisation's own accounts of the arrangement.[4]
In November 2012, Justin Elliott reported for ProPublica that Frederick Kagan described the couple's extended visits to Afghanistan as a way of supplying outside advice and informing the debate in Washington. Frederick Kagan said they were careful not to present their opinions as orders. The Department of Defense confirmed that it invited outside experts to receive campaign briefings, but said it did not have a comprehensive list of think-tank visitors to its Kabul headquarters.[6]
Rajiv Chandrasekaran's December 2012 investigation described the couple's desks, military email accounts, access to classified intelligence and direct contact with David Petraeus. Some officers praised their contribution; others said their proximity to Petraeus created confusion about whether they spoke on his behalf. Frederick Kagan responded that they explicitly said they were not speaking for the commander.[3]
ISW's own report records that Kagan presented its National Security Leadership Award to Petraeus on 4 August 2011. It names General Dynamics as the award's sponsor and lists DynCorp International, CACI International, Palantir Technologies and Northrop Grumman in its Corporate Council.[4]
Chandrasekaran's investigation reported that the Kagans continued to receive salaries from their think tanks rather than government pay for this work, and quoted Kimberly Kagan thanking DynCorp and CACI supporters for enabling her deployment. It connected the advisory arrangement to questions about private funding and access, while recording the Kagans' view that their unpaid status preserved their independence.[3]
Policy positions and commissions
Afghanistan
In her December 2011 account in the Institute for the Study of War's annual report, Kagan advocated a “sustained, significant U.S. presence for a few more years”. She called for coalition and Afghan forces to hold cleared territory in Helmand and Kandahar, for resources and some troops to be shifted to eastern Afghanistan, and for United States forces to complete operations against insurgent safe havens south of Kabul.[4]
Syria
In an April 2013 article published by the Hoover Institution, Kagan advocated United States provision of money, weapons, equipment and training to the secular opposition to Bashar al-Assad. She argued that support should strengthen the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Command relative to Jabhat al-Nusra, and linked Assad's removal to reducing Iranian influence.[7]
In September 2014, Kagan co-authored A Strategy to Defeat the Islamic State with Frederick Kagan and Jessica D. Lewis. The paper argued that United States strategy should prevent Assad's government, Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra from controlling Syria and support an alternative inclusive state.[8] Henda Spence's subsequent study records that the report envisaged a commitment of perhaps as many as 25,000 United States ground troops across Iraq and Syria.[9]
Kagan later served on the Syria Study Group in 2018–2019.[1] Presenting the group's consensus recommendations to the United States Senate in September 2019, co-chairs Michael Singh and Dana Stroul urged reversal of the United States military withdrawal from north-eastern Syria, stronger sanctions on Assad and his backers, continued diplomatic isolation, and the use of authorised stabilisation funding. These were recommendations of the group, rather than a separately authored Kagan statement.[10]
Ukraine and military adaptation
In August 2024, Kagan co-authored an Institute for the Study of War paper with Frederick Kagan and colleagues on restoring manoeuvre in Ukraine. It advocated successive smaller counteroffensives, operational surprise and technological adaptation, rather than reliance on one decisive attack.[11]
Remuneration
ProPublica's extraction of the Institute for the Study of War's 2024 Form 990 reports the following compensation for Kagan. The categories are those used in the extraction.[12]
| Financial year | Position | Compensation | Related-organisation compensation | Other compensation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | President | $221,040 | $0 | $8,400 |
See also
- Institute for the Study of War
- Frederick Kagan
- David Petraeus
- Jack Keane
- American Enterprise Institute
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Institute for the Study of War, Kimberly Kagan, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Institute for the Study of War, Our History, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Did general David Petraeus grant friends access to top secret files?, The Independent, 20 December 2012, republished from The Washington Post, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Institute for the Study of War, 2011 Annual Report, organisation's own annual report for 2011, pp. 5–7, 13, 15–17, 24 and 28–33, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Institute for the Study of War, Who We Are, accessed 7 November 2026.
- ↑ Justin Elliott, Meet the Think Tankers Advising the U.S. Military in Kabul, ProPublica, 30 November 2012, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Kimberly Kagan, The Smart and Right Thing in Syria, Hoover Institution, 1 April 2013, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Kimberly Kagan, Frederick W. Kagan and Jessica D. Lewis, A Strategy to Defeat the Islamic State, Institute for the Study of War, 12 September 2014, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Henda C. G. Spence, The influence of neoconservatism on US foreign policy debates during the Obama administration, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2016, p. 205, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, The Path Forward: Key Findings from the Syria Study Group Report, hearing of 24 September 2019, S. Hrg. 116-141, Washington: United States Government Publishing Office, 2020, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ Frederick W. Kagan, Kimberly Kagan and colleagues, Ukraine and the Problem of Restoring Maneuver in Contemporary War, Institute for the Study of War, 12 August 2024, accessed 6 November 2026.
- ↑ ProPublica, Institute For The Study Of War Inc, Nonprofit Explorer, extracted Form 990 data for the financial year ending December 2024, accessed 6 November 2026.