Richard M. , Jr. Wrona

Major Richard Wrona is currently an International Affairs Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he is focusing on the more effective, efficient, and innovative employment of private military firms in U.S. military strategy. His most recent military assignment (2007-2010) was as the strategy and policy branch chief at U.S. Africa Command. A 1994 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Major Wrona cross-commissioned to the United States Army in order to serve as an airborne infantry officer. During his first eight years of duty, he served in the 82nd Airborne Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade in both command and staff positions.

In 2002, he relinquished company command and began graduate studies at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. Upon graduation from SAIS in 2004, Major Wrona was reassigned to the U.S. Military Academy, where he taught courses in international relations, comparative politics, and international security studies, and acted as a special lecturer in the Academy's terrorism studies courses. Until 2007, Major Wrona served as a national commentator on Hizballah and provided instruction to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces concerning the same organization.

He is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former associate of the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy. His publications include articles concerning American civil-military relations and book chapters about Lebanon's Hizballah, and he frequently posts opinions at www.solittlepains.blogspot.com.