Dr. Craig Whiteside is an Associate Professor at the Naval War College 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 lectures at the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School. Whiteside’s current research focuses on the doctrinal influences of the leadership of the Islamic State movement, the evolution of its political-military doctrine since 1999, and the tribal engagement strategy that fueled its return since 2008. His doctoral research investigated the political worldview of the Islamic State of Iraq (2003-2013), relying on an analysis of over 3,000 original documents published by the movement as well as captured documents that have been recently declassified. Prior to his doctoral
work, he was a U.S. Army officer with counterinsurgency experience in Iraq from 2006-7