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Matthew Irvine

Matthew Irvine

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Related Topics: Regional Security Challenges, Terrorism, Irregular Warfare and Crime, U.S. Military Forces & Operations, U.S. National Security and Defense Policy
Research Associate

Matthew Irvine is a Research Associate at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Mr. Irvine’s primary research focus is on defense policy and transnational threats, including terrorism, narcotics and insurgency. 

Irvine is a contributor to Understanding Counterinsurgency (Routledge, 2010) and a variety of CNAS reports and blogs, including Security Through Partnership (2011), Beyond Afghanistan (2011), The Next Fight (2011), and Sustainable Pre-eminence (2012).  His writings have also been published in Politico, Orbis, the Journal of International Security Affairs, C4ISR Journal, Small Wars Journal and he has appeared on National Public Radio and Voice of America.

Previously, he was the Writers-in-Residence intern at CNAS working with Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt of The New York Times, as well as with Senior Fellow Thomas Ricks. Prior to joining CNAS, Mr. Irvine was a research assistant intern at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Offices of Governor Janet Napolitano in Arizona.

He graduated cum laude with honors and a B.A. in History and Middle East and South Asia studies from Wake Forest University, where he received the Richard Worden Griffin Research Prize in Asian, African, or Latin American History. He has studied at Tel Aviv University, in Israel, and at the Arabic Language Institute in Fes, Morocco. Mr. Irvine also has an M.A. from American University’s School of International Service, U.S. Foreign Policy Program, focusing on transnational threats and global security, where he received the Duncan L. Clarke Award for his study of insurgency in Pakistan.

Related Content

  • New Study Outlines How the Military Could Create a Leaner, Less Expensive Force
    Type: News Item
    Source: New York Times At War Blog

    May 23, 2012 — Thom Shanker writes in The New York Times about the new CNAS report “Sustainable Pre-eminence," which provides policy recommendations for how the Pentagon can reorganize and reform.

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  • U.S. Must Remain Pre-eminent Military Power While Reforming Department of Defens
    U.S. Must Remain Pre-eminent Military Power While Reforming Department of Defense, Say CNAS Experts
    Type: Press Release

    Washington, May 23, 2012 — Maintaining the U.S. military's global pre-eminence is vital to protecting American interests and promoting American values. However, the Pentagon still has not enacted the types of reforms that are necessary to sustain that pre-eminence into the future. In Sustainable Pre-eminence: Reforming the U.S. Military at a Time of Strategic Change, released today by the Center for a New American Security, experts LTG David W. Barno, USA (Ret.), Dr. Nora Bensahel, Matthew Irvine and Travis Sharp argue that DOD should organize and operate America's armed forces in new ways. Join the authors for a live web chat about the report online here on Tuesday, May 29 from 2:00-3:30 p.m.

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  • NATO considers future of Afghanistan
    Type: News Item
    Source: Deutsche Welle

    May 20, 2012 — LTG David Barno, USA (Ret.), Andrew Exum and Matthew Irvine's 2011 policy brief "The Next Fight," in which the authors argued that Afghan forces were perhaps far from prepared to take over the war by 2014, was cited by Deutsche Welle ahead of the NATO summit.

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  • U.S. Wants To Avoid Ban on Afghan Night Missions
    Type: News Item
    Source: U.S. News and World Report

    March 29, 2012 — In U.S. News and World Report, CNAS Non-Resident Senior Fellow John Nagl and Research Associate Matthew Irvine comment on the high value of night raids to the Obama administration's strategy of dismantling and defeating the Taliban and its terrorist network allies.

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  • The Next Fight: Time for a Change of Mission in Afghanistan
    CNAS Authors: It's Time for a Change of Mission in Afghanistan
    Type: Press Release

    Washington, December 6, 2011 — With a 2014 transition looming in Afghanistan, U.S. and allied military leaders must recognize that U.S. and coalition forces will not defeat the Taliban and its allies in the next three years. The Next Fight: Time for a Change of Mission in Afghanistan, a report released today by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and authored by Lieutenant General David W. Barno, USA (Ret.), Dr. Andrew Exum and Matthew Irvine, calls for a change of mission in Afghanistan.

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  • Dial Back Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan Now, Think Tank Says
    Type: News Item
    Source: Military Times

    December 5, 2011 — The Military Times' "Battle Rattle" blog recapitulates recommendations made by the authors of the recent CNAS policy brief, "The Next Fight," on the necessity of new force structures designed to advise and enable Afghan forces.

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  • Book Review: The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA
    Type: News Item
    Source: Small Wars Journal

    September 21, 2011 — CNAS Research Associate Matthew Irvine reviews Joby Warrick's recent book for Small Wars Journal.

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  • Death of a Sacred Cow
    Type: News Item
    Source: C4ISR Journal

    September 1, 2011 — In C4ISR Journal, CNAS Research Assisant Matthew Irvine discusses the effect of future spending cuts on the intelligence community.

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  • Elite Forces in Afghanistan
    Type: News Item
    Source: The Brian Lehrer Show

    August 11, 2011 — CNAS Research Assistant Matt Irvine discusses how Special Forces are ramping up their role as the U.S. plans its withdrawal from Afghanistan on The Brian Lehrer Show.

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  • CNAS Expert Commentary on President Obama's Afghanistan Speech
    Type: Press Release

    Washington, D.C., June 22, 2011 — In his speech tonight, President Obama announced the removal of 10,000 American troops by the end of 2011 and an additional 23,000 troops by September 2012, withdrawing a little more than the 30,000 troop surge he ordered in December 2009.  CNAS experts offered the following analysis on this decision.

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  • Afghanistan
    Afghanistan and Pakistan

    The Center for a New American Security's research on Afghanistan focuses on the war at all levels at which it is being fought –  the political, the strategic, the operational and the tactical – and brings together the resources of CNAS in order to consider the conflict in both its local and regional contexts. 

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  • Acquiring Weapons in a Global Economy
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    CNAS' defense budget project, Responsible Defense, explores how the United States should maximize its security in an era of defense budget reductions. Its related defense acquisition research looks at the evolution of U.S. defense acquisition policies amid a global security environment with rapidly emerging and constantly changing threats.

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  • Terrorism, Irregular Warfare and Crime
    Terrorism, Irregular Warfare and Crime

    This project examines the nexus of terrorism, irregular warfare and crime.  

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  • mexico, drugs, drug war
    Transnational Crime

    The close relationship between crime and terrorist activities is well-documented. Criminal ventures have long financed organized violence against nation states. As globalization facilitates the increased flow of people, capital, and information, we see a concomitant increase in these activities across the world. 

    This project examines the nexus of terrorism, irregular warfare and crime, and has included work on the implications of drug cartels, crime and gangs in Mexico and South America for U.S. national security, counter-threat finance, and other types of irregular warfare. The project is led by COL Robert Killebrew, USA (Ret.).

    CNAS research on transnational crime includes the 2010 report Crime Wars: Gangs, Cartels and U.S. National Security. In the report, authors COL Robert Killebrew, USA (Ret.) and Jennifer Bernal survey organized crime throughout the Western Hemisphere, analyze the challenges it poses for the region and recommend the United States replace the "war on drugs" paradigm with comprehensive domestic and foreign policies to confront the interrelated challenges of drug trafficking and violence ranging from the Andean Ridge to American streets.

    In 2011, CNAS released the policy brief Security Through Partnership: Fighting Transnational Cartels in the Western Hemisphere, written by Killebrew and Matthew Irvine. According to the authors, increased regional cooperation – which has been a topic of President Obama’s Latin America tour – is needed to combat the growing violence and instability in the Western Hemisphere.

    CNAS continues to research the growing crime-terror-insurgency nexus and the threat posed by transnational crime in the Western Hemisphere. 

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  • Afghanistan, withdrawal, troop, ISAF, NATO, transition, Afghan National Security
    Audio - Press Briefing for "The Next Fight: Time for a Change of Mission in Afghanistan"
    Date: 12/05/2011
    Media: Audio

    On December 5, the Center for a New American Security held a press briefing on its recent policy brief, "The Next Fight: Time for a Change of Mission in Afghanistan." Authored by Lieutenant General David W. Barno, USA (Ret.), Dr. Andrew Exum and Matthew Irvine, the brief calls for a change of mission in Afghanistan and offers policy recommendations for the Obama Administration, the ISAF/U.S. Forces Commander, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps and the U.S. Special Operations Command. The authors were joined by CNAS President John Nagl, who offered key takeaways from his recent trip to Afghanistan.

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  • Special Forces
    Elite Forces in Afghanistan
    Date: 08/11/2011
    Media: Audio

    Yesterday, U.S. military officials claimed to have killed Taliban militants responsible for last weekend’s takedown of a Chinook helicopter that killed 38 people, including twenty-two Navy Seals. Matthew Irvine of the Center for New American Security discusses the latest news out of Afghanistan, and the way in which special forces are taking on more military duties as the US prepares to pull troops.

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  • Video - Pressure: Coercive Economic Statecraft and U.S. National Security
    Video - Pressure: Coercive Economic Statecraft and U.S. National Security
    Date: 02/01/2011
    Media: Video

    A discussion of the CNAS report Pressure: Coercive Economic Statecraft and U.S. National Security with authors Dr. David Asher, Dr. Patrick Cronin and Victor Comras.

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