Mackubin Thomas Owens, the associate dean of academics for electives and directed research and professor of strategy and force planning for the Naval War College, is a contributing editor to National Review.

He is a senior fellow at the Program on National Security of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and edits its journal, Orbis. Owens has previously served as a national security advisor to Senator Bob Kasten and in the Department of Energy during the Reagan administration. From 1990 to 1997, Owens was editor-in-chief of the defense journal Strategic Review and an adjunct professor of international relations at Boston University.

Owens served as an infantry platoon commander from 1968-1969 in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, during which he was wounded twice and awarded the Silver Star. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve as a colonel in 1994. He holds a Ph.D in politics from the University of Dallas, a Master of Arts in economics from the University of Oklahoma, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara.