Dr. Craig Whiteside is an Associate Professor at the US Naval War College resident program at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, where he teaches national security affairs to military officers as part of their professional military education. He is a senior associate with the Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island and a fellow at the George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. Whiteside’s current research focuses on the leadership succession and military doctrine of the Islamic State militant group, and he co-authored The ISIS Reader (Oxford University Press, 2020). He has a BS from West Point and a PhD in Political Science from Washington State University and is a former U.S. Army officer with experience in Iraq.