Colonel Mark Jacobsen is a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense program of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Currently, Jacobsen is the deputy director of Blue Horizons at the Air Force’s Center for Strategy and Technology, an educational program that prepares battle-ready entrepreneurs for the US Air Force.

He thrives at the intersection of scholarship and operational practice and has leveraged his deep experience in both technology and social science to found multiple organizations aimed at developing novel airpower and cyber-power concepts. These include a cyber exploitation team at the Defense Innovation Unit aimed at stopping the use of drones for terrorism and a nonprofit, Uplift Aeronautics, which seeks to break sieges and fight starvation in Syria. He has also served as the director of strategic communication of the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum since 2013. He previously served as an assistant professor at Air War College and the Air Force’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies.

Jacobsen has served as an officer in the US Air Force since 2002, during which his notable assignments include a training manager role in the 10th Airlift Squadron, and as the assistant director of operations for the 21st Airlift Squadron. Jacobsen earned his PhD in political science at Stanford University. He was also an Olmsted scholar in Amman, Jordan, where he earned his master of arts degree in conflict resolution at the University of Jordan.