Frank Sobchak, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Joint Military Operations Department
Biography
Frank joined the Joint Military Operations Department in 2025 having previously taught at the undergraduate and graduate level. During a twenty-six-year career in the Army, he served in Special Forces assignments in war and peace and as a congressional liaison for U.S. Special Operations Command. His final assignment was leading the Army’s official operational history of the Iraq War, which resulted in publication of the US Government’s longest and most detailed study of the conflict thus far. He is a frequent contributor to television, radio, and print interviews and his latest book, Training for Victory: Special Forces Advisory Missions from El Salvador to Afghanistan, published in 2024.
Contact Information
Areas of Expertise
- Asymmetrical Warfare
- Civil-Military Relations
- COIN
- GWOT
- Iraq
- Irregular Warfare
- Middle East
- Security Cooperation
- Special Operations
- Terrorism
Professional Highlights
Peter Ackerman Doctoral Dissertation Award
Education
Ph.D., The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 2022, International Relations
M.A., Georgetown University, 2002, Arab Studies
B.S., U.S. Military Academy, West Point, 1992, Military History
Related Credentials
The Modern War Institute, U.S. Military Academy
Chair, Irregular Warfare Studies
Joint Special Operations University Press Editorial Board
Member
Future Security, New America
Fellow, 2025-Present
Global and National Security Institute, University of South Florida
Senior Fellow, 2023-Present
Smith Richardson Foundation
Strategy and Policy Fellow, 2022-2023
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
Scaife Foundation Fellow in International Security Studies, 2020-2021
Miryam Institute, New York, NY
Contributor (Fellow), 2019-Present
Research Contributions and Publications
Training for Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Missions from El Salvador to Afghanistan
U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2024
2024 War on the Rocks Holiday Reading List
The U.S. Army in the Iraq War, Invasion, Insurgency, Civil War: 2003-2006, Vol. 1 of 2
Co-author with Joel Rayburn, editor, and Jeanne Godfroy-Hull, James Powell, and Mathew Morton
Strategic Studies Institute, 2019
The U.S. Army in the Iraq War, Surge and Withdrawal: 2007-2011, Vol. 2 of 2
Co-author with Joel Rayburn, editor, and Jeanne Godfroy-Hull, James Powell, and Mathew Morton
Strategic Studies Institute, 2019
“The Tortured Path to Strategic Failure: U.S. Landpower in Iraq 2003-2011”
In Landpower in the Long War: Projecting Force After 9/11
University Press of Kentucky, 2019
“Accidentally Accelerating Sectarianism: The U.S. Role in the Iraqi Civil War”
In Contextualizing Sectarianism in the Middle East and South Asia
Routledge, 2023
External Memberships and Associations
International Studies Association
Society for Military History
Phi Alpha Theta
Special Forces Association
Office of Strategic Studies Association
Material and external links contained herein are made available for the purpose of peer review and discussion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Naval War College, Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.