Bob Wilson was a fellow in New America's International Security program.
Wilson is a national security professional with over 27 years of experience serving in a broad range of assignments within the United States Army, the Department of Defense, and the White House.
A retired Army officer, Wilson served over two decades as a special forces soldier leading complex operations in Latin America, Central Asia, and Africa. He led a special operations task force in Afghanistan at the height of the Afghan “surge” from 2011-2012, and later commanded all of the tactical special operations forces in Afghanistan in 2014. He also commanded a joint special operations task force conducting counterterrorism operations in Northern and Western Africa from 2015 to 2016.
Later, Wilson served in the White House on the National Security Council, where as a director for counterterrorism he helped oversee counterterrorism efforts for both the Obama as well as the Trump administrations. During that time, Wilson assisted with developing U.S. counterterrorism policies for Somalia and Africa’s Lake Chad Basin.
Following his retirement from the Army in 2018, Wilson joined the team at Global Venture, a natural resources consulting company that focuses on developing and frontier markets. Wilson serves as Global Venture’s director of strategic initiatives, where he develops, oversees, and helps implement programs and projects that support the vision and long term plans of the company.
Wilson holds an MBA from Webster University, a master of resource strategy from the National Defense University, a master of military arts and sciences from the School of Advanced Military Studies, and a BS in finance from the University of Connecticut, Storrs.