Michael Dennis

Strauss Center Faculty Fellow, Assistant Professor of Practice in Public Affairs

Michael (Mike) Dennis is an Associate Professor of Practice in Public Affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Prior to this, he was a member of the Intelligence Community, serving at the National Ground Intelligence Center as a Senior Intelligence Analyst. During this time, he was appointed an Exceptional Analyst Research Fellow at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Mike also taught at the National Intelligence University’s Center for Strategic Intelligence and Research and was an instructor for U.S. Army Special Forces at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Ft. Liberty, NC. Throughout his tenure, he supported policymakers at the executive and congressional-level, senior decision-makers in diplomacy, intelligence, and defense, and various deployed units. 

Mike is a leading expert on Chechnya and the North Caucasus insurgency and a subject matter expert on irregular warfare, civil wars, and insurgencies. During the Second Russo-Chechen War, he was a volunteer aid-worker with the International Rescue Committee in Chechnya, and co-directed the Chechnya Advocacy Network, an international humanitarian organization. For his doctoral and post-doctoral fieldwork, he lived with Chechen refugees and rebels exploring the conditions under which displaced Chechens support political violence. His current research investigates the broader subject of civilian agency and loyalties in guerrilla conflicts. 

Mike’s research has been published in Security Studies and referenced in Foreign Affairs, and he recently completed an academic book manuscript based on his work with Chechen refugees. He holds a Ph.D. in Government from The University of Texas at Austin, an M.A. in Political Science from Miami University (Ohio), and studied at Novgorod State University in Russia, and Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He is a former Fulbright Scholar and speaks Chechen and Russian. 

Prior to university, Mike served as a Rifleman in the U.S. Marine Corps, deploying to Africa to support combat operations in Somalia and the evacuation of American personnel from Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. He spent his final year as a freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestler with the Marine Wrestling team.