Dr. Howard Gambrill Clark

Areas of Interest: Information, Influence Strategy; Narrative, Subversion, Deception Warfare; National Intelligence

Dr. Howard Gambrill Clark, Ph.D. has advised, executed, and commanded strategic influence campaigns for over 25 years.                                       

He graduated from Yale University with a degree in international relations focusing on the Near East, South Asia, and North Africa. While a student, Dr. Clark was a writer for U.S. Information Agency's Near East / South Asia Division; served on the staff of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee; and studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo via a Department of Defense grant.   

After Yale, Dr. Clark served as policy analyst in the Executive Office of the President for the President’s Chief Economic Adviser, focusing on counterterrorism. Following the White House, Dr. Clark served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an intelligence officer and multi-national / special-unit commander with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the Philippines.   

After military service, Dr. Clark was presidentially appointed as Department of Homeland Security Chief Intelligence Officer's Special Assistant. Then, as Senior Intelligence Analyst for Homeland Security Counter-Radicalization, Dr. Clark helped lead the Intelligence Community in intelligence support to countering violent extremism. He was then promoted to Senior Intelligence Officer for Homeland Security Operations Intelligence (headquarters) before acting as consultant (contracted Senior Intelligence Analyst) to Special Operations Command's Counter-Radicalization Branch. 

While earning his Ph.D. from King's College London War Studies, he served as senior stabilization and counter-violent-extremism adviser and educator for USAID, USSOCOM, USDA, DOS, Special Forces, USMC, NATO, and partner governments in Southwest Asia and the homeland and Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. 

He is currently an associate professor at National Defense University's College of Information and Cyberspace. He created and directly the concentration of Influence Warfare with students across four colleges. He is course director for a number of programs on influence to include Influence Warfare (shares same name as concentration); Subversion, Subterfuge, Sabotage; and Information, Warfare, and Military Strategy. And he directs and facilitates information lesson in several courses and programs to include the Strategic Leadership Foundational Course. 

Recent positions include: 

- President, Narrative Strategies (think tank) -- teaches and researches the fields of strategic influence and psychological warfare. 

- CEO, Stability Institute (non-profit) -- trained and advised special operators and stabilization professionals on influence strategies and collapsing violent extremist groups on five continents. 

- Faculty, National Defense College, UAE (DOD program overseen by NDU and U.S. Embassy in UAE) – director and coordinator for "Countering-Violent-Extremism," "Information and Cyberwarfare," "Media and National Security," and "International Security" programs.   

Select Books / Theses 

• Influence Warfare Volume II: Case Studies, Narrative Strategy Ink, Washington, DC, 2023. (expected) 

• Influence Warfare Volume II: Primers, Narrative Strategy Ink, Washington, DC, 2022. (expected) 

• Influence Warfare Volume I: A Blueprint, Narrative Strategies Ink, Washington, DC, 2021. 

• Information Warfare: The Lost Tradecraft, Narrative Strategies, LLC, Washington, DC, 2017.

          The ability to effectively compete on the influence battlefield is, as Howard brilliantly explains, lost to U.S. practitioners. This is not an irrevocable loss and Howard’s                book is easily the best book to date on how to reestablish this expertise. -Paul Cobaugh, Special Operations 

          If you live and breathe in the information age, you owe it to yourself to read this book. The first chapter alone, in its sweep and scope of history, is worth the price of                admission, but read on for a clear-eyed introduction into the practice and theory of information tradecraft. It is like getting the Russian playbook the night before the big            game. -Professor Nathan Toronto, National Defense College 

• Information as an Instrument of State Power: A Primer, UAE National Defense College, UAE General Headquarters, 2017. 

• Countering Violent Extremism: A Primer, UAE National Defense College, UAE General Headquarters, 2017. 

• Defeating Violent Extremists: The Tradecraft, UAE National Defense College, UAE General Headquarters, 2016. 

• Village Stability Operations, U.S. Army Peacekeeping & Stability Operations Institute, 2015 (coauthor). 

• Lions of Marjah: Why Marjah’s Militia Combats Violent Extremists, King’s College London thesis, 2014. 

• Lions of Marjah: Why Marjah’s Militia Combats Violent Extremists, King’s College London thesis, 2014. 

• Revolt Against Al-Qa`ida: A Strategy to Empower Muslims and Collapse International Insurgency, Light of New Orleans Publishing, New Orleans, 2010. 

          This book should be required reading for all those deploying to the war zones and for policymakers responsible for countering violent ideological extremism. -The                    Honorable Charles E. Allen, retired Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis and CIA Counterterrorism Center Deputy Chief 

          Strategists, specialists as well as common readers will ignore this highly readable book by a soldier-scholar at their own peril. -Arif Jamal, Author of Shadow War: The              Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir 

          Clark's prescriptions are based on wisdom drawn from his field experience. We desperately need this approach. -Professor Hassan Abbas, Columbia University 

• Narrative Analyses: Taliban, AQAP, Special Operations Command, Tampa, 2010 (coauthor). 

• Kill Al Qaeda (this was a purposefully mischievous title that belied its focus on stemming online radicalization and recruitment), Light of New Orleans Publishing, New Orleans, 2009. 

• Kill Al Qaeda deftly married theoretical approaches with practical applications in an accessible and direct format. -Andrew Black, CEO, Black Watch Global LLC 

Select Articles / Primers 

• "Chapter 1: Narrative and War," published in Dangerous Narratives: Warfare, Strategy, Statecraft, Narrative Strategies Ink, 2020. 

• “Influence Framework Primer,” Cyber Studies Department, College of Information and Cyberspace, National Defense University, Washington, DC, March 2020. 

• “How to Teach Influence: Thoughts on a New Scholarly Discipline,” Inaugural Symposium on Educating Leaders for a Competitive Information Environment: Closing the Gap between Theory and Practice in Professional Military Education, National War College, National Defense University, 2020. 

• “Influence Tradecraft Primer,” Cyber Studies Department, College of Information and Cyberspace, National Defense University, Washington, DC, February 2020. 

• “Influence Actors, Activities, and Strategies Primer,” Cyber Studies Department College of Information and Cyberspace, National Defense University, Washington, DC, October 2019. 

• “Influence Myths Primer,” Cyber Studies Department, College of Information and Cyberspace, National Defense University, Washington, DC, May 2019. 

• “Defining Influence,” Narrative Strategies Journal, Washington, DC, January 2019. 

• “Is Cybersecurity Possible? Yes, Go Back to Basics,” Narrative Strategies Journal, Washington, DC, November 2018. 

• “Revolt Against Islamic State,” Narrative Strategies Journal, Washington, DC, November 2018. 

• “Fourth Act in Narrative Construction,” Narrative Strategies Journal, Washington, DC, November 2018. 

• “Where Violent Extremists Go Next,” Narrative Strategies Journal, Washington, DC, November 2018. 

• “Money and Stabilization,” National Defense Journal, National Defense College, UAE, June 2017. 

• “The Responsibility to Protect in the Context of State-Sponsored Terror,” Defense and Intelligence Norway, July 2016 (coauthor). 

• “Go Local,” American Interest, July / August 2015. 

• “Regimental Effects Operations Center: Enhancing Situational Awareness and Achieving Unity of Effort in Nonkinetics,” The Marine Corps Gazette, Volume 96, Issue 8, 2012 (coauthor). 

• “Ending Al Qaeda,” American Interest, July / August 2011 (coauthor). 

• “The Accidental Ideologue,” Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, 2010. 

• Homeland Security assessments (68) on countering violent extremism for operators, Cabinet, and White House, 2007 – 2009.  

• Three National Economic Council damage assessments for potential terrorist attacks, 2001. 

• Six articles on Middle East leadership and Iraqi resistance for U.S. Information Agency, 1999.