Michael Linick is a Senior Defense and Political Science Researcher at The RAND Corporation, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown. A retired Army Colonel, with 30 years as an Infantry and Force Management officer, Michael’s research focuses on finding ways for the Army to function more effectively and efficiently, on Active Component/Reserve Component integration, on personnel policy, and on how to best tailor the Army to meet current and emerging strategic challenges. He has worked with the Offices of the Secretary of Defense on a variety of personnel policy issues, on developing new ways to measure strategic readiness, and by providing advice and counsel to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense on how to restructure their department to better meet Iraqi security needs. From 2017-2020 he directed The RAND Army Research Division’s Personnel, Training, and Health research portfolio. Michael teaches graduate courses in “Strategy, Policy, and Military Operations” and in “Insurgency and Counterinsurgency” in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service’s Security Studies Program.
Michael has extensive experience with wargames, as a hobbyist, as a Soldier, and at RAND.Michael was one of the lead designers for a game called “Hedgemony: A Game of Strategic Choices”, RAND’s first ever policy game published for sale to the general public. This game, which was designed to support development of the 2018 National Security Strategy, exposes players to the difficulty of balancing a constrained budget with the demands of a wide variety of world crises, and the need to look to both near term and long term readiness; balancing the size, readiness, posture, and modernization of the force to achieve strategic goals. He has been part of the design team supporting the first ever policy level gaming for the U.S. Coast Guard, and for several tactical and operational games used to better understand combat between modern armies.
During his military career, Michael served in a variety of Infantry positions in Korea, Germany, Kosovo, and across the United States. As a Force Management officer, Michael was the Chief of Force Management for both the senior ground headquarters of Operation Enduring Freedom (CFLCC, 2001-2) and the senior headquarters for Operation Iraqi Freedom (MNF-I/USF-I, 2009-10). He developed and wrote the Army’s first equipping strategy in 2008, and coordinated the Total Army Analysis process for the Army from 2010-2013.
Michael is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz (BA in Politics, 1983), Georgetown University (MA in National Security Studies, 1996), Catholic University (MA and PhD. Candidacy in World Politics, 2005) and the Army War College (MA in Security Studies, 2006), as well as a wide variety of military schools. He was a co-founder of Georgetown’s National Security Studies Quarterly (now known as the Security Studies Review), and its first Senior Editor. His military awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star.