As one of the world’s leading authorities on terrorism and sophisticated crime, Brian Michael Jenkins works with government agencies, international organizations and multinational corporations. He is Senior Advisor to the President of RAND. From 1989 to 1998, Mr. Jenkins was the Deputy Chairman of Kroll Associates, an international investigative and consulting firm. Before that, he was Chairman of RAND’s Political Science Department where, from 1972 to 1989, he also directed RAND’s research on political violence.
Mr. Jenkins has a B.A. in Fine Arts and a Masters Degree in History, both from UCLA. He studied at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico and in the Department of Humanities at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala where he was a Fulbright Fellow and recipient of a second fellowship from the Organization of American States.
Commissioned in the infantry at the age of 19, Mr. Jenkins became a paratrooper and ultimately a captain in the Green Berets. He is a decorated combat veteran having served in the Seventh Special Forces Group in the Dominican Republic during the American intervention, and later as a member of the Fifth Special Forces Group in Vietnam (1966-1967). He returned to Vietnam on a special assignment in 1968 to serve as a member of the Long Range Planning Task Group; he remained with the Group until the end of 1969 receiving the Department of the Army's highest award for his service. Mr. Jenkins returned to Vietnam on third special assignment in 1971.
In 1983, Mr. Jenkins served as an advisor to the Long Commission, convened to examine the circumstances and response to the bombing of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Lebanon. In 1984, he assisted the Inman Panel in looking at the security of American diplomatic facilities abroad and in 1985-86, he served as a member of the Committee of the Embassy of the Future, which established new guidelines for the construction of U.S. diplomatic posts. In 1989, Mr. Jenkins served as an advisor to the national commission established to review terrorist threats following the bombing of PanAm 103. In 1993, Mr. Jenkins served as a member of the team contracted by the New Jersery-New York Port Authority to review threats and develop new security measures for the World Trade Center following the February bombing.
In1996, President Clinton appointed Mr. Jenkins to be a member of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. From 1999-2000, he served as an advisor to the National Commission on Terrorism and since 2000, he has served as a member of the U.S. Comptroller General's Advisory Board. Mr. Jenkins also is the Director of the National Transportation Security Center at the Mineta Transportation Institute, and since 1997 has directed the institute's continuing research on protecting surface transportation against terrorist attacks.
Mr. Jenkins serves as a Special Advisor to the International Chamber of Commerce and a member of the advisory board of the ICC’s investigative arm, the Commercial Crime Services. Over the years,Mr. Jenkins also has served as a consultant to or carried out assignments for a number of government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security. As part of its international project to create a global strategy to combat terrorism, the Club of Madrid in 2004 appointed Mr. Jenkins to lead the international working group on the role of intelligence.
Mr. Jenkins is the author of International Terrorism: A New Mode of Conflict, the editor and co-author of Terrorism and Personal Protection, co-editor and co-author of Aviation Terrorism and Security, and a co-author of The Fall of South Vietnam. His latest book is Unconquerable Nation: Knowing Our Enemy, Strengthening Ourselves. His new book, Will Terrorists Go Nuclear? will be published in September 2008.He is also the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and published research reports on conflict and crime.