Douglas Ollivant

Military service

A former assistant professor at the United States Military Academy's Department of Social Sciences, he is affiliated with a group of military intellectuals, who have been tapped to provide insight and recommendations to General David Petraeus, in what was labeled by Tom Ricks as Petraeus’s “brain trust” or "warrior-intellectuals". Others in this list include, Brigadier General Bill Rapp, Colonel(P) H.R. McMaster, Colonels Peter Monsoor, and Michael Meese, Lieutenant Colonels John Nagl, Mike George, Jen Easterly, Paul Yingling, Bill Ostlund and Charles Miller, as well as Dr. David Kilcullen and Dr. Carter Malkesian.

In her 2008 book, Tell Me How This Ends, Linda Robinson called Ollivant the “right person in the right place at the right time” for his work in devising the operational implementation of the successful Baghdad Security plan.

Military writings

In 2006 Ollivant co-authored, with Captain Eric Chewning, an influential article in Military Review, entitled "Producing Victory: Rethinking Conventional Forces in Counterinsurgency Operations", and a 2007 follow-on article, entitled "Producing Victory: a 2007 postscript for implementation", that articulated the need for US forces to abandon sprawling forward operating bases and move into Iraqi communities. The premise of the essay was that counterinsurgency requires military units to simultaneous execute security operations, train local security forces, promote economic development, and foster political institutions. Ollivant and Chewning argued that conventional military units best operate in such an environment when partnered with indigenous security forces co-located among the target population.

The white paper, which was based on Ollivant and Chewning’s experience during combat operations in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, significantly influenced the tactical deployment of US and Iraqi ground forces during the “Surge”. From October 2006 to December 2007 Ollivant was Chief of Plans for Multi National Division-Baghdad and was the lead coalition force planner for the development and implementation of the Baghdad Security Plan in coordination with the Iraqi Security Forces.

In 2008 a review symposium on the FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency Manual sponsored by Perspectives on Politics, Ollivant called for an expansion of irregular warfare doctrine and warned of a potential over reliance on counterinsurgency frameworks in the future. He notes that the absence of a larger framework of warfare tends to pull all instances of irregular war into the counterinsurgency model. This theoretical lacuna presents a difficulty since future conflicts will require peace enforcement, peacekeeping, nation building, and other paradigms to also compete as frameworks for action.

In March 2010, Ollivant and Chewning published an article in The American Interest outlining the military, political, and economic actions necessary for a successful US-Iraqi relationship after the US troop withdrawal.

Other writings

Beyond his contributions to military theory, Ollivant wrote a series of articles and book reviews dealing primarily with Catholic political theorists Jacques Maritain and Orestes Brownson, and edited a book of collected essays on the former.

Education and professional associations

Ollivant, a graduate of the US Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies, holds a PhD and MA in political science from Indiana University (political theory and American politics) and a BA in political science from Wheaton College. He is also a life-member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the American Political Science Association.

Media appearances

Following his retirement from the military, Ollivant has appeared on media outlets to provide perspective on the current state of military and political affairs in Iraq.

Written works