Robert M. Cassidy, Ph.D.

Fellow

Robert M. Cassidy is an officer in the U.S. Army where he currently serves at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He is a member of the Royal United Services Institute Advisory Board and he is a fellow with the Center for Advanced Defense Studies.

Dr. Cassidy has master’s degrees in international relations and diplomacy from Boston University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He earned his Ph.D. from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, where his fields of study were international security, European diplomacy, and international organizations. He also holds the Diplome d'Etude Supérieure de Défense from the French Joint Defense College at the École Militare.

LTC Bob Cassidy has served as a battalion commander, a special assistant to the Commanding General of U.S. Army forces in Europe, as a brigade operations officer in the 4th Infantry Division during the first part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, as the Squadron Executive Officer of 1-10 Cavalry in the 4th Infantry Division, as a Troop Commander in 1-17 Cavalry of the 82nd Airborne Division, and as an assistant professor of international relations at the United States Military Academy.

Dr. Cassidy has published several articles and reviews, which have appeared in Parameters, Military Review, The RUSI Journal, Small Wars and Insurgencies, The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, and Defense Concepts. His areas of interest are stability operations, counterinsurgency, and military culture. In early 2003, Dr. Cassidy published a monograph with the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute about the Russian experiences trying to conduct counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Cassidy has been the author of two books, both with Praeger. Peacekeeping in the Abyss: British and American Doctrine and Practice after the Cold War appeared in 2004 and Counterinsurgency and the Global War on Terror appeared in 2006. His latest article, "Regular and Irregular Indigenous Forces for a Long Irregular War," appeared in the February 2007 issue of the RUSI Journal.