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Program for Culture and Conflict Studies at NPS - Home
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M. Chris Mason
Senior Research Fellow
M. Chris Mason is a Senior Research Fellow with the Program for Culture &
Conflict Studies, focusing on the history and ethnography of Afghanistan,
Pakistan and India. Mr. Mason is a retired Foreign Service Officer who
served as the Afghanistan Policy Officer for the Bureau of Political Military
Affairs at the State Department for four years beginning in June 2001,
developing U.S. security policy on Afghanistan, ranging from the International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF), to the Disarmament Program (DDR) and
the Afghan National Army (ANA).
While at the State Department, he worked closely with the intelligence
community on a number of classified projects involving tribal mapping and the
tribes of Afghanistan. He was considered the State Department's expert on the history, culture and
ethnography of the country and served on the CIA's Pashtun Red Cell.
In 2005, he served as the Political Officer on the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Paktika
Province on the Pakistan border. As the senior US government civilian in the province, he traveled
widely with the provincial governor and U.S. Army maneuver elements, engaging thousands of Afghans
at speeches and Shura (elders) meetings across the province. Prior to that tour, Mr. Mason had
previously traveled frequently to Afghanistan, beginning in January, 2002 on a variety of security-related
projects.
He is currently also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington, DC,
and serves as the South Asia Desk Officer for the Marine Corps Center for Advanced Culture Learning
(CAOCL) in Quantico, Virginia, where he developed the Marine Corps' classroom program and distancelearning training programs for Afghanistan, wrote the Afghanistan Deployer's Cultural Guide, and trains
Marines deploying to Afghanistan.
Mr. Mason currently lectures on ethnography and counterinsurgency in
Afghanistan at the National Defense University, the Joint Special Operations
University, Fort Bragg, RAND, DynCorps, and the Naval Postgraduate School.
In addition, he teaches a course on Counterinsurgency for the Master of
Security Studies (MSS) program at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT),
and lectures on Afghanistan history, culture and the Taliban for the U.S.
Army's traveling Leadership Development and Education for Sustained
Peacekeeping (LDESP) program which trains military personnel deploying to
Afghanistan.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service in 1990, Mr. Mason served as a Peace Corps volunteer in South
America from 1977-1979 and naval officer on active duty from 1981-1986, with tours as a gunnery officer
(USS John Young, DD973), a forward observer (2d Battalion 12th Marines) and a naval gunfire officer (2d
ANGLICO Airborne). He earned Navy Master Parachutist wings, the Navy Achievement Medal, the
Korea Defense Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal, Zimbabwean Army parachute wings, the State
Department Superior Honor Medal, and other awards. He holds a Bachelor's Degree from Carnegie
Mellon University, a Master's Degree in Military Studies from Marine Corps University, and is currently a
PhD candidate in South Asian History at the George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Culture & Conflict Review Articles:
Lessons Unlearned, Vol.1, No. 2, December 2007.
Other Publications:
Terrorism, Insurgency, and Afghanistan (PDF) -Thomas H. Johnson and M. Chris Mason
Published in: Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century. International
Perspectives. Vol 2. Combating the Sources & Facilitators. Edited by: James J. Forest.
Praeger Security International, 2007.
Understanding the Taliban and Insurgency in Afghanistan. (PDF) (Text format) -Thomas H.
Johnson and M. Chris Mason
Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs 51, No. 1, 20072006
Material contained herein is made available for the purpose of peer review and discussion and does not
necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.
Contact M. Chris Mason
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