John Allen

Allen has served as a special assistant on the staffs of the 30th Commandant of the Marine Corps and the commanding general of Marine Corps Combat Development Command.

Following battalion command, Allen reported as the senior aide-de-camp to the 31st Commandant of the Marine Corps, Charles C. Krulak, ultimately serving as his military secretary.

John Rutherford Allen (born December 15, 1953) is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general, and former commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A).

Allen was born at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, on December 15, 1953; his father, Joseph K. Allen, was a Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War who retired as a lieutenant commander.

He attended Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia.

He graduated with military honors from the U.S. Naval Academy with the Class of 1976, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Operations Analysis.

Following commissioning in 1976, Allen attended The Basic School and was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, where he served as a platoon and rifle company commander.

His next tour took him to Marine Barracks, 8th and I, Washington, D.C. where he served at the Marine Corps Institute and as a ceremonial officer.

Allen then attended the Postgraduate Intelligence Program of the Defense Intelligence College, where he was the Distinguished Graduate.

He subsequently served as the Marine Corps Fellow to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

He was the first Marine Corps officer inducted as a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Returning to the Fleet Marine Force in 1985, he commanded rifle and weapons companies and served as the operations officer of 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines.

During this period he received the Leftwich Leadership Trophy.

In 1988, Allen reported to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he taught in the Political Science Department and also served as the jump officer and jumpmaster of the academy.

In 1990 he received the William P. Clements Award as military instructor of the year.

Allen reported to The Basic School as the director of the Infantry Officer Course from 1990 to 1992 and was subsequently selected by the Commandant of the Marine Corps Fellows Program, which provides "assignment to either a prominent national foreign policy/public policy research institution or to a national security studies program at a selected university".

In 1994, he served as the Division G-3 Operations Officer for the 2nd Marine Division and subsequently assumed command of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines; re-designated as 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines.

This unit served with JTF-160 in Operation SEA SIGNAL during Caribbean contingency operations in 1994, and as part of the Landing Force of the 6th Fleet in Operation JOINT ENDEAVOR during Balkans contingency operations in 1995–1996.

He is a 1998 Distinguished Graduate of the National War College.

He holds a Master of Arts degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University, a Master of Science degree in Strategic Intelligence from the National Defense Intelligence College, and a Master of Science degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College of National Defense University.

He commanded The Basic School from 1999 to 2001, when he was selected in April 2001 to return to the Naval Academy as the deputy commandant.

Allen became the 79th Commandant of Midshipmen in January 2002, the first Marine Corps officer to serve in this position at the Naval Academy.

In January 2003 Allen was nominated for appointment to the rank of brigadier general.

Allen's first tour as a general officer was as the principal director of Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Office of the United States Secretary of Defense, a position he occupied for nearly three years.

From 2006 to 2008, Allen served as deputy commanding general of the II Marine Expeditionary Force and commanding general of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, deploying to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom 06–08, serving as the deputy commanding general of Multi-National Forces West and II MEF (Forward) in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

In January 2007 Allen was nominated for appointment to the grade of major general.

In June 2008, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced Allen's nomination for promotion to the rank of lieutenant general.

He served as the deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command from July 15, 2008, until July 18, 2011, at MacDill Air Force Base.

On June 30, 2010, Allen temporarily commanded Central Command after General David Petraeus left to assume command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

He served as acting commander until General James Mattis took command on August 11.

Allen was promoted to general by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen prior to his assumption of command of ISAF, and U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) on July 18, 2011.

Allen's foreign awards include the Mongolian Meritorious Service Medal, First Class; the Polish Army Medal in Gold; the Taiwan Order of the Resplendent Banner; the French Legion of Honor; the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic; Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia; and the Ghazi Mir Bacha Khan Medal.

On March 6, 2012, he received the Polish Afghanistan Star Medal from Polish President, Bronisław Komorowski.

On April 20, 2012, he received another Polish award, the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

In November 2012, he was investigated along with Jill Kelley.

In response to the investigation, Secretary Panetta suspended his confirmation hearing for commander of EUCOM and requested the U.S. Congress to speed the confirmation of General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr. to command of forces in Afghanistan.

On September 13, 2014, President Barack Obama appointed Allen as special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).

He was succeeded in that role by Brett McGurk on October 23, 2015.

He is the co-author of Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence with Darrell M. West (Brookings Institution Press, 2020) and Future War and the Defence of Europe alongside Lieutenant General (Ret.) Ben Hodges and Professor Julian Lindley French (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Allen was president of the Brookings Institution from October 2017 until his resignation on June 12, 2022.