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Stephen E. Flynn

Stephen Flynn is the Ira A. Lipman Senior Fellow for Counter-Terrorism and National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of the critically acclaimed The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation (Random House, 2007), and the national bestseller, America the Vulnerable (HarperCollins 2004). At the Council, Dr. Flynn directs an ongoing working group on national resilience and homeland security. He was the Director and principal author for the task force report America: Still Unprepared—Still in Danger, (2002) co-chaired by former Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman.

Dr. Flynn is a Consulting Professor at the Center of International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School’s Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 9/11 he has provided testimony on twenty-two occasions on Capitol Hill. He has served as the principal advisor to the bipartisan Congressional Port Security Caucus and is a member of the Marine Board of the National Research Council.

He is a frequent media commentator and has appeared on Meet the Press, 60 Minutes, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The Today Show, the Charlie Rose Show, CNN and on National Public Radio. Four of his articles have been published in the prestigious journal, Foreign Affairs. Excerpts of his books have been featured in Time, as the cover story for U.S. News & World Report, and as the subject of two CNN documentaries.

A 1982 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Dr. Flynn served in the Coast Guard on active duty for 20 years, including two tours as commanding officer at sea, received several professional awards including the Legion of Merit, and retired at the rank of Commander. He received the M.A.L.D. and Ph.D. degrees in International Politics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in 1990 and 1991. He was a Guest Scholar in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution from 1991-92, and in 1993-94 he was an Annenberg Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Flynn is the principal for Stephen E. Flynn Associates LLC, where he provides independent advisory services on improving enterprise resiliency and transportation and logistics security.

Born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1960, Dr. Flynn lives in Connecticut with his wife JoAnn and their daughter Christina.