Colonel Mark Cancian (USMC, Ret.) Joins CSIS

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2015 – The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) is pleased to announce that Colonel Mark Cancian (USMC, Ret.) has joined the Center as a senior adviser in the International Security Program (ISP).

Col Cancian comes to CSIS from the Office of Management and Budget, where he spent more than seven years as director of the Force Structure and Investment Division, working on issues such as Department of Defense procurement, military construction budgets, nuclear weapons, and nonproliferation activities in the Department of Energy. Previously, he worked on force structure and acquisition issues in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and ran research and executive programs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

“Colonel Cancian will further deepen ISP’s unparalleled staff expertise in defense strategy, forces, and budget,” said Dr. Kathleen Hicks, CSIS senior vice president, Henry A. Kissinger Chair, and director of the International Security Program. “We’re very fortunate to have someone of his caliber join the ISP team.”

Colonel Cancian spent nearly four decades in the U.S. Marine Corps, active and reserve, serving as an infantry, artillery, and civil affairs officer and on overseas tours in Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Iraq. He is also an adjunct professor of strategic studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and an award-winning writer. Colonel Cancian is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and received an M.B.A. with highest honors from Harvard Business School.

Dr. John Hamre, CSIS president and CEO, praised Colonel Cancian’s distinguished career in the military and in the U.S. government. “I have known Mark Cancian for almost 20 years. He is widely respected by leaders on both sides of the aisle who have relied on him for his integrity, his operational experience, and his incisive analytical capability. I couldn’t be more pleased to have him at CSIS.”


The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, non-profit organization founded in 1962 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It seeks to advance global security and prosperity by providing strategic insights and policy solutions to decisionmakers.