Dr. Dennis Walters

Leadership.

Dr. Dennis Walters

Director

Dr. Dennis Walters serves as the Director of the Irregular Warfare Center (IWC). In this executive capacity, he draws on more than three decades of operational and academic expertise to guide the Department of War and the Interagency approach to conflict and competition, with a dedicated focus on irregular warfare. Utilizing his extensive leadership experience spanning military service, global networking, and higher education, Dr. Walters orchestrates cross-functional collaboration and strategic initiatives to support the primary mission of the Center. His comprehensive background in counterterrorism, strategic defense futures, and global security partnerships provides him with a unique foundation for making positive, lasting impacts as a premier defense leader.

Prior to leading the IWC, Dr. Walters pioneered a novel approach of using education to bridge cultures and build global networks on behalf of the Assistant Secretary of War for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (ASW/SOLIC). Beginning in 2009, his efforts resulted in the creation of the largest international network of irregular warfare professionals, which established the critical foundations for the ultimate creation of the Irregular Warfare Center. Today, this robust global network consists of more than 25,000 personnel from 120 countries, directly supporting United States national security objectives and enhancing U.S. interoperability with allies and partners around the globe.

Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Walters has held multiple pivotal government, operational, and senior-level instructional positions. He entered public service in 1983, enlisting in the United States Army as an Infantryman where he was selected as an original member of the re-activated 3/75th Ranger Battalion. He was later commissioned into the Army Intelligence Corps in 1994, completed the Special Forces Qualification Course, and assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group, where he led a Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) during combat operations in Kosovo and Serbia. A fluent Russian speaker, he was deployed to Tajikistan in 2001 to work directly with the Russian Army in support of the U.S. response to 9/11, and later served at the strategic level as a senior military advisor to the ASW/SOLIC for counterterrorism before his military retirement in 2009.

An accomplished academic and published author, Dr. Walters has instructed advanced courses on irregular warfare at the National Defense University and taught at Regent University, where he developed one of the nation’s first graduate courses on strategic defense futures. His published literature includes seminal works such as “DOD’s Irregular Warfare Center: Building Partnerships by Opening Up the Tent”, “The Benefits of Wargaming and Futurism for Irregular Warfare Professionals”, and “National Security Challenges and Irregular Warfare in the 21st Century”. A highly credentialed federal executive, Dr. Walters holds a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership with a focus on Strategic Defense Futures from Regent University. He also holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University and completed his foundational academic studies with a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations, focusing on Russian language, from Methodist University.