Nathaniel Fick served in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) after the September 11 attacks and during the Iraq war of 2003. After leaving the military he attended Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School. His memoir One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer, published in 2005, was a New York Times bestseller, one of The Washington Post’s “Best Books of the Year,” and one of the Military Times’ “Best Military Books of the Decade.” Fick was portrayed by actor Stark Sands in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill. He was appointed CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in 2009.

Richard Fontaine is the current chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security. Before joining CNAS, he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain and worked at the State Department; the National Security Council in the Near Eastern and Asian Affairs directorates; and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.