Gary J. Sampson is a research fellow at the Caracristi Institute for Intelligence Research at National Intelligence University, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He is also a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a Ph.D. candidate at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, where his research examines post-Cold War alliance politics in East Asia.
An active-duty U.S. Marine Corps officer, Gary specializes in intelligence and international affairs, focusing on northeast Asia. Career highlights include serving as principal intelligence briefer to the 38th commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, Marine Corps plank holder on the red team in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and special assistant to the 19th and 20th chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Earlier in his military career, Gary deployed in support of Operations Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom, and Enduring Freedom-Philippines.
Gary graduated from the University of Nebraska, the Defense Language Institute, and the National Intelligence University. From 2009 to 2011, Gary was an Olmsted Foundation scholar in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where he earned a master’s degree in social science from National Sun Yat-sen University’s Institute of China and Asia-Pacific Studies.
Gary is an external fellow of the International History Institute at Boston University’s Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. From 2019 to 2020, Gary was a member of the sixth cohort of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program fellows.
Gary has taught at George Washington University and Tufts University. His written work has been published by the International Journal of Korean Studies, Marine Corps History, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, the Marine Corps Gazette, Military Review, the Strategy Bridge, Studies in Intelligence, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.