John Spencer

John Spencer is Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point and currently serving as a Colonel in the California State Guard with assignment to the 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guard as Director of Urban Warfare Training. John Spencer is one of the world's leading scholars and experts in the field of urban warfare. He has studied, taught, and written about urban warfare for over a decade. He has conducted field research on urban battle around the world, from Iraq, Israel, India, Panama, to Nagorno-Karabakh. He has advised militaries around the world on how to get better at military operations in urban areas. He is also a veteran of urban warfare having two urban centric combat deployment to Iraq - one during the invasion in 2003 and again in Baghdad in 2008 during the U.S. "surge" and Battle of Sadr City. He is an international recognized subject matter expert that regularly consults for United States Army, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), United Nations, and many others military and national security organizations.