Dr. Zachary Abuza is a Professor at the National War College, in Washington, DC, where he focuses on Southeast Asian security and politics, including governance, insurgencies, civil-military relations, military modernization, strategic culture, maritime security, and China’s defense posture. He is the author of six books, including, Forging Peace in Southeast Asia: Insurgencies, Peace Processes, and Reconciliation (2016), Conspiracy of Silence: The Insurgency in Southern Thailand (2008), Political Islam and Violence in Indonesia (2006), Militant Islam in Southeast Asia (2003), and Renovating Politics in Contemporary Vietnam (2001). His latest book, The Vietnam People’s Army: From People’s Warfare to Military Modernization? (2025) examines the dilemmas of modernization for a party-army, steeped in people’s war tradition. His forthcoming book analyzes civil-military relations across the 11 ASEAN member states. He authored the Southeast Asian chapter in the acclaimed study, Leaving Terrorism Behind, as well as four monographs on security issues in Southeast Asia. He has done extensive wargaming and red-teaming for the National Defense University.
From 2017-2025 he was a columnist for Benar News and Radio Free Asia. He has authored a number of studies on Myanmar’s spring revolution for the Stimson Center. He is a frequent commentator in the media and has traveled extensively throughout the region. He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service. He has twice served as a Congressional witness. In 2004-05, he was a Senior Fellow at the US Institute of Peace and a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship. He received his B.A. from Trinity College (1991), and M.A.L.D. (1994) and Ph.D. (1998) from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
FUNCTIONAL EXPERTISE: Security, Politics, Civil-Military Relations, Strategic Culture, Terrorism, Insurgencies, Peace Processes, and Maritime Security
REGIONAL EXPERTISE: Southeast Asia and China
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