Ethan Harding

Lieutenant Colonel (LtCol) Ethan Harding currently serves as a Military Faculty Advisor at the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, VA. He has served as a Marine Corps for nearly twenty years in multiple roles, from leading M1A1 Abrams tank units, to conceptualizing and implementing post-conflict reconstruction strategies as a civil affairs officer, to advising general officers on evolving issues in the Middle East. LtCol Harding has completed five deployments; one in peacetime as a tank platoon commander, and four in combat. In 2005, he deployed to Iraq, primarily serving in a tribal engagement capacity in the Euphrates River Valley. In three deployments to Afghanistan, between 2004 and 2013, LtCol Harding served in seven of Afghanistan’s thirty-four provinces – mostly along Afghanistan’s shared borders with Pakistan and Iran, respectively – primarily in tribal engagement and civil affairs capacities.   

LtCol Harding’s education background includes an undergraduate degree in history from Norwich University. While serving as a Marine, he earned graduate degrees in both international relations, and military arts and sciences. He has written extensively; on topics ranging from urban warfare to counterinsurgency, including the book, Identifying the Pillars of Stability Operations: Using Social Science to Bridge the Gap in Operational Doctrine - published in 2011.