Mark Silinsky is the president of Kensington Security Consulting and a retired forty-year veteran analyst of the Defense Intelligence Community. He is the author of five books on international relations and Middle Eastern terrorism, and the host of all eight Kensington Podcasts channels.

Dr. Silinsky graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Southern California. He earned his M.Phil. in international relations from Oxford University, where he studied under the supervision of Sir Michael Howard. He holds a Ph.D. in international development from Tulane University, where his dissertation examined economic development and stability in Afghanistan.

In 2008, Dr. Silinsky graduated from the Afghanistan Counterinsurgency Academy near Kabul and was selected for the Director of National Intelligence’s Exceptional Analyst Program, conducting counterinsurgency research in Afghanistan.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Silinsky served in military capabilities analysis, counterintelligence, indications and warning analysis, terrorism intelligence, and predictive intelligence. He served as an action officer on the Joint Staff, J5, working on homeland security and counterterrorism. He began his career as an Africa analyst, later serving as a civilian Army Foreign Intelligence Officer (FAO) for Eurasia with Russian language qualifications.

Dr. Silinsky has also served as an adjunct professor at the United States Army War College and at Haifa University.