John R. Allen is a retired U.S. Marine Corps four-star general and former commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. General Allen served as Special Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, a position he held for 14 months. Immediately following retirement from the Marine Corps, Allen was the Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense on Middle East Security, and in that role, he led the security dialogue with Israel and the Palestinian Authority for 15 months within the Middle East peace process.
General Allen specializes on advanced and emerging technologies at the intersection of geopolitics and geostrategic relations. He is the co-author of the book Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence alongside Dr. Darrell M. West (Brookings Press, 2020). He is also the co-author of Future War and the Defence of Europe alongside LTG (Ret.) Frederick “Ben” Hodges and Professor Dr. Julian Lindley French (Oxford University Press, 2021). Future War has been translated into German, Romanian, and, most recently, Ukrainian. He is one of the originators of the term “hyperwar”. As a co-inventor, Allen shares five AI related patents.