Robert “Bob” Maginnis

Lieutenant Colonel (U.S. Army, Retired) 

Lieutenant Colonel Robert “Bob” Maginnis, U.S. Army (retired) is an experienced and internationally known expert on national security and foreign affairs. He currently serves as a national security and foreign affairs analyst for Salem Radio Network and is a regular guest on several other radio networks and appears on Fox News. He is the vice president with MESMO Inc., a Maryland-based company where his primary duties involve working on multinational programs for the Department of the Army in the Pentagon. He is a former columnist for Human Events and the author of five books, the latest is Alliance of Evil (2018).

His position at the Pentagon requires as a contract program manager that he supervise a team supporting the U.S. Army on international relations issues.  His expertise matured over the past 16 years is on security cooperation, which is how the U.S. military works with other militaries to develop their capabilities and join American-led coalitions.  He also instructs an Army course which he created and is now taught at the Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Before returning to the Pentagon in 2002 Colonel Maginnis served as the vice president for policy with the Washington, DC-based Family Research Council. While with FRC, Colonel Maginnis supervised a staff of policy experts and also served as the organization’s expert for national security, foreign affairs, crime prevention and drug policies. He testified numerous times before Congressional committees, worked with the Clinton administration on drug issues as a Congressionally appointed adviser and traveled internationally to speak on a variety of issues.

In his many roles, Colonel Maginnis has appeared on all major television and most radio networks over the past three decades.  His quotes and opinion pieces appeared in the nation’s leading periodicals, and he has more than a thousand published articles.

The colonel is the author of five published books: Deadly Consequences (Regnery, 2013); Never Submit (Defender Publishing, 2015); Future War (Defender Publishing, 2016); The Deeper State (Defender Publishing, 2017); and Alliance of Evil (Defender Publishing, 2018).  He contributed chapters to a number of other published books as well.

In July 1993 Colonel Maginnis retired from an assignment at the Pentagon where he served as an Inspector General. He is an airborne-Ranger infantry officer with an assignment history that includes Korea, Germany, Alaska, and several posts in the continental United States. He served in command and staff positions in four infantry divisions from platoon to division level. The colonel was the chief for the U.S. Army Infantry School’s leadership and ethics training branch. He developed curricula, taught, participated in leader development research and consulted with leaders and soldiers throughout the Army. He is the author of more than fifty articles published in professional military journals concerning ethics, leadership, and personnel matters impacting the military. Colonel Maginnis' service in the armed forces was commended with the Legion of Merit, one of the highest Army peacetime decorations, as well as with five meritorious medals and four commendation medals.

In the last eight months of his military service, Colonel Maginnis was a member of the Army’s study group examining the homosexual ban. He also was an advisor to the Defense Department Military Working Group on homosexuals in the military. In that role, he debated the issue in the media as well as speaking in various forums - including testifying before a House of Representatives subcommittee.

He served on Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld’s retired military analyst group from 2002 to 2006 which took him to war zones and granted him considerable access to senior Pentagon officials.

Colonel Maginnis received his B.S. from the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York in 1973 and a M.S. from the Naval Postgraduate School, California, in 1983. He is a graduate of many military schools, including the Defense Language Institute, the Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army's War College strategy course.

Colonel Maginnis was born in Orlando, Florida and was raised in Alabama, California and Tennessee. He and his wife Jan have two grown children and three grandchildren.  They make their home in Woodbridge, Virginia and are active members at Calvary Baptist Church in Woodbridge.