Barnett S. Koven

Barnett S. Koven is a national security specialist and data scientist with nine years of experience in counterterrorism, counterinsurgency and great power competition. He has deep expertise in leading analytics teams applying quantitative and qualitative approaches to national security combining research design, inferential statistics, machine learning and applied AI, survey experimental research, and data visualization. Koven has received research funding from the U.S. Departments of Defense (DoD), Homeland Security (DHS), State, Justice, and Energy, as well as from the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, George Washington University (GWU) and University of Maryland (UMD). He received his Ph.D., M.Phil. and M.A. in Political Science, as well as a B.A. in International Affairs and Latin American and Hemispheric Studies from GWU. In addition, Koven has been accepted into the Executive MBA program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He also holds a Certificate in Conflict Analysis from the United States Institute of Peace and a Certificate in Advanced Security in the Field from the United Nations System Staff College. Finally, Koven is the lead author (with Dr. Katy Lindquist) of the forthcoming Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) Press book, Barriers to Special Operations Forces – Led Counterterrorism Effectiveness.

Koven is a Manger at Deloitte working as a data scientist in the firm’s federal sector strategy & analytics practice. He is also an Adjunct Faculty Member at JSOU. Koven previously served as the Training Director, Near-peer Competition Lead Researcher, and Counterterrorism Lead Researcher at UMD’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a DHS Emeritus Center of Excellence. He also founded and served as the CEO of BSK Consulting, LLC, a boutique consultancy specializing in practitioner education and mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative) research in support of national security practitioners and policy-makers. Additionally, Koven was a Principal Policy Analyst at Alion Science and Technology Corporation, and a Quantitative Social Scientist at Performance Systems, LLC. He also held academic appointments at GWU, UMD, Florida International University, Universidad de San Martín de Porres (in Lima, Peru), the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School, and the Modern War Institute at West Point.