Steve Leonard
Steve Leonard is an award-winning faculty member at the University of Kansas School of Business, where he serves as Senior Assistant Dean and Professor of the Practice. A former senior military strategist and the creative force behind the defense microblog, Doctrine Man!!, he is a career writer and speaker with a passion for developing and mentoring the next generation of thought leaders. He is an emeritus senior fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point; the co-founder of the national security blog, Divergent Options; co-founder and emeritus board member of the Military Writers Guild; and a member of the editorial review board of the Arthur D. Simons Center’s Interagency Journal. Published extensively, his writing focuses on issues of foreign policy, national security, strategy and planning, leadership and leader development, and pens a weekly column, Point of Departure. He is the author, co-author, or editor of several books, including To Boldly Go (Casemate, 2021), Why We Write (Middle West Press, 2019), Winning Westeros (Potomac Books, 2019), and Strategy Strikes Back (Potomac Books, 2018). He is currently working on his next book, With Great Power, scheduled for publication in 2023.
Steve received his bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Idaho in 1987 and his master’s degree in systems management from Murray State University in 1990. He began his Army career as a logistics officer, later specializing in strategic planning and policy. He served in a variety of command and staff positions during his time in uniform, including assignments in the Unites States, Europe, Korea, and the Middle East. He served two combat tours with the 101st Airborne Division, and another with the staff of the US Embassy-Iraq, where he was the principal military assistant to the Deputy National Security Advisor of the Government of Iraq, and the senior advisor to the commanding general of Iraq’s National Defense University.
