Andrew Exum

Andrew Exum is an American scholar of the Middle East and a Fellow of the Center for a New American Security.^[1]

After graduating from The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee (1996) and the University of Pennsylvania (2000), where he was a columnist for the Daily Pennsylvanian, Exum, a US Army officer, led a platoon of light infantry in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks and subsequently led a platoon of Army Rangers as a part of special operations task forces in Kuwait and Afghanistan with the rank of Captain.^[2] He earned a Master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies at the American University of Beirut. In 2006-2007, Exum was a Soref fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He is pursuing his doctorate in the Department of War Studies, King's College London.^[3]

Blake Hounshell of Foreign Policy calls Exum, “one of the sharpest Middle East analysts around.”^[4]

While still on active duty, but “laid up with a non-combat knee injury,” Exum wrote his first book, This Man's Army: A Soldier's Story from the Front Lines of the War on Terrorism.^{[5] [6]}

On May 30, 2008, Exum revealed himself to be the founder of the blog Abu Muqawama (Arabic, أبوللمقاومة for "father or expert of the Resistance"). This blog, "dedicated to following issues related to contemporary insurgencies," was followed by many notable students and practitioners of counterinsurgency in the military, academia and the media. Exum also announced he was leaving the blog to pursue his research.^[7] Exum subsequently returned to the blog and continues to post under the pseudonym Abu Muqawama.

This Man's Army: A Soldier's Story from the Front Lines of the War on Terrorism (2004)