David H. Ucko, Ph.D., is the Head of Net Assessments at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Headquarters. Previously, he served as professor at the College of International Security Affairs (CISA) of the National Defense University, Washington DC, where he taught irregular warfare and strategy to international military and civilian practitioners.

Dr. Ucko has published several books on strategy, political violence, and war-to-peace transition. Most recently, he authored The Insurgent's Dilemma: A Struggle to Prevail (Hurst / Oxford University Press, 2022) and, with Thomas A. Marks, Crafting Strategy for Irregular Warfare: A Framework for Analysis and Action, 2nd ed. (NDU Press, 2022). His publications also include a wide variety of peer-reviewed articles on irregular warfare, insurgency, and organised crime.Dr. Ucko was previously program coordinator and research fellow for the Conflict, Security & Development Research Group at the Department of War Studies, King's College London. He has also held adjunct positions at Johns Hopkins University, the RAND Corporation in Washington DC, the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in both in DC and in London.

Dr. Ucko obtained his Ph.D. at the Department of War Studies in 2007, with a thesis examining the US military's institutional learning of counterinsurgency.

Research areas

• Strategy and warfare
• Political violence and insurgency
• Civil war and intervention

Publications

Books

• The Insurgent’s Dilemma: A Struggle to Prevail (Hurst / Oxford UP, 2022).
• Crafting Strategy for Irregular Warfare: A Framework for Analysis and Action, 2^nd edition w/ T. Marks (NDU Press, 2022, 1^st edition in 2020).
• Counterinsurgency in Crisis: Britain and the Challenges of Modern Warfare, w/ R. Egnell (Columbia UP, 2013).
• The New Counterinsurgency Era: Transforming the U.S. Military for Modern Wars (Georgetown UP, 2009).
• Reintegrating Armed Groups after Conflict: Politics, Violence and Transition, ed. w/ M. Berdal (Routledge, 2009).

Book chapters;

• ‘Defining Irregular Warfare: Legitimacy, Violence, and Politics’, w/ T. Marks, in Rick Newton (ed.), The Future Face of Irregular Warfare: Great Power Confrontation in the 21st Century (2024).
• ‘True to Form? Questioning the British Counterinsurgency’, w/ R. Egnell, in B. Heuser et al (eds), Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies: National Styles and Strategic Cultures (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2017)
• ‘Whither Counterinsurgency: The Rise and Fall of a Divisive Concept’ in P. Rich and I. Duyvesteyn (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency (Routledge, 2012).
• ‘Les Dilemmes de la Doctrine de Contre-Insurrection Américaine: Répétition, Pertinence et Effet‘, in G.H. Bricet des Vallons (ed), Faut-Il Brûler la Contre-Insurrection (Choiseul, 2010).
• 'Whither NATO?', w/ M. Berdal, in S. Forman et al, (eds), Cooperating for Peace and Security (Cambridge UP, 2009).

Research articles:

• ‘The Role and Limits of Special Operations in Strategic Competition: The Right Force for the Right Mission’, RUSI Journal (2023).
• ‘Counterinsurgency as Fad: America’s Rushed Engagement with Irregular Warfare, Journal of Strategic Studies (2023).
• ‘Systems Failure: The US Way of Irregular Warfare’, Small Wars & Insurgencies 30, no. 1 (2019).
• ‘Violence in Context: Mapping the Strategies and Operational Art of Irregular Warfare’, w/ T. Marks, Contemporary Security Policy 39, no. 2 (2018).
• ‘Preventing violent extremism through the UN: the rise and fall of a good idea,’ International Affairs 94, no. 2 (2018).
• ‘Can Limited Interventions Work? Lessons from Britain’s Success-Story in Sierra Leone’, Journal of Strategic Studies 39, nos 5-6 (2016).
• ‘”The Peasants are Revolting”: An Anatomy of Authoritarian Counterinsurgency”, Journal of Strategic Studies 39, no. 1 (2016).
• ‘The Use of Force in UN Peace Operations: Problems and Prospects’, w/ M. Berdal, RUSI Journal 60, no. 1 (2015).
• ‘Critics Gone Wild: Counterinsurgency as the Root of All Evil’, Small Wars & Insurgencies 25, no. 1 (2014).
• ‘Counterinsurgency in El Salvador: The Lessons and Limits of the Indirect Approach’, Small Wars & Insurgencies 24, no. 4 (2014).
• ‘Beyond Clear-Hold-Build: Rethinking Local-Level Counterinsurgency after Afghanistan‘, Contemporary Security Policy 34, no. 3 (2013).
• ‘Peacebuilding After Afghanistan: Between Promise and Peril’, Contemporary Security Policy 31, no. 3 (2010).
• ‘Lessons from Basra: The Future of British Counterinsurgency’, Survival 52, no. 4 (2010).
• ‘Countering Insurgents through Distributed Operations: Insights from Malaya’, Journal of Strategic Studies 30, no. 1 (2007).