David Blanton

David is a United States Army officer and doctoral researcher specializing in U.S. foreign and security policy, with a focus on authority, institutions, and alliance governance, and on the political and institutional factors shaping U.S. overseas basing, military diplomacy, and force posture in Europe since 1945. He is affiliated with the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at Heidelberg University.

His professional experience includes command, operational, and senior staff assignments across armored, mechanized, and Stryker formations in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific. He served at U.S. Army Human Resources Command and in the Pentagon as a General Omar N. Bradley Fellow.  In the Pentagon, he supported senior civilian and military leadership within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Headquarters Department of the Army, where his portfolio focused on strategy development, force management, posture planning, and alliance coordination.

He subsequently returned to operational assignments in 1st Cavalry Division, deploying to Bemowo Piskie, Poland as Operations Officer for a NATO Enhanced Forward Presence Multinational Battlegroup and later serving as Executive Officer of 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team. His operational deployments include service in Iraq, Kuwait, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, and Poland.

In 2025, he was selected for the General (Ret.) Andrew Goodpaster Advanced Strategic Studies Army PhD Program, supporting his doctoral research on U.S. overseas military force posture, military diplomacy, and alliance governance in Europe.

• U.S. foreign and security policy
• Alliance governance and NATO institutions
• U.S. overseas military basing and force posture
• Military diplomacy and multinational operations
• Civil–military authority and bureaucratic politics

• Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. — MPM – Policy Management
• Indiana University, Bloomington — MPA – Public Affairs
• The Ohio State University, Columbus — BSBA – International Business and German
• University of California, Berkeley — Certificate – Strategic Leadership and Innovation
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — Certificate – Logistics and Technology

• 2025–Present: PhD Candidate, U.S. Army Goodpaster Advanced Strategic Studies Program (ASP3), Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA), Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
• 2024–2025: Executive Officer, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
• 2023–2024: Operations Officer, 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
• 2023: Operations Officer, NATO Enhanced Forward Presence Multinational Battle Group, Bemowo Piskie, Poland (Operation Atlantic Resolve)
• 2019–2023: General (Ret.) Omar N. Bradley Fellow, Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Headquarters, Department of the Army, Washington, D.C.
• 2017–2019: Assignment Officer (Armor Branch Career Manager), U.S. Army Human Resources Command, Fort Knox, Kentucky
• 2016–2017: Company Commander, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment (Light), 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii
• 2015–2016: Troop Commander, 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment (Stryker), 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii
• 2012–2013: Company Commander, 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado
• 2010–2012: Executive Officer and Tank Platoon Leader, 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado (Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn)

Blanton, David. “Fostering a Culture of Mission Command.” Armor Magazine, March–June 2014, 21–24. https://www.benning.army.mil/Armor/eARMOR/content/issues/2014/MAR_JUN/Mar-Apr14_Web_version.pdf

Blanton, David, and Hertling, Todd. “Informing Reform: Three Observations to Guide Army Talent Management Changes.” Modern War Institute at West Point, June 2019. https://mwi.westpoint.edu/informing-reform-three-observations-guide-army-talent-management-changes/

Blanton, David. “Building Readiness West of the Dateline.” Army Magazine 65, no. 12 (December 2015): 63–65. https://www.ausa.org/issues/army-magazine-vol-65-no-12-december-2015