LTC Adam Christenson is the Director of the Strategic Wargaming Division at the National Defense University’s Center for Applied Strategic Learning (NDU-CASL). He joined CASL in March 2020. Adam is also a U.S. Army Foreign Area Officer (FAO) specializing in Latin America. Previously, he has experience serving on the Joint Staff’s directorate of Strategy, Plans, and Policy, where he frequently interfaced directly with the U.S. National Security Council, and other federal security, emergency management, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies.
Prior to his career as a FAO, Adam served as an infantry officer and later as a logistics officer. He has served in South Korea, Italy, and Afghanistan. As a FAO, Adam was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina as an operations officer for the Security Cooperation Office (Military Group).
Adam is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York (2004) with a B.S. in International Politics, and has his M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (2015).
Adam is originally from Odessa, Texas. His military awards include the Bronze Star medal, Airborne badge, Air Assault badge, and Ranger Tab. Adam is married to Mary, a Senior Specialist at Chemonics, a major international development firm headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Since arriving to CASL, Adam has worked on wargames and exercises for the National War College (NWC), College of International Security Affairs (CISA), College of Information and Cyberspace (CIC), Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy (ES), International Student Management Office (ISMO), Reserve Component National Security Course (RCNSC), the Marine Corps University (MCU), and the Pacific Air Forces Pacific Air Chiefs Symposium (PACS) 2021.