Jason Criss Howk, has spent over 30 years in the national security arena in defense, diplomacy, and intelligence roles. He educates, writes, speaks, paints, and sings about Afghanistan, veteran wellbeing, interfaith issues, Islam, and other foreign policy and national security topics.
To contact Jason about video appearances or speaking engagements you can email him at: wjtaNC at gmail.com
He holds a Master’s degree in Middle Eastern and South-Asian studies, was a term-member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a Malone Fellow in Arab and Islamic Studies. He also studied Afghan Farsi (Dari) and Arabic, and has published numerous works on the Broader Middle East and Islam.
Jason is currently a writer, songwriter, advocate, and non-profit leader. He is a professor of Islamic studies at the Air Force Special Operations School, and lectures on UW at the USMC War College. He has 225 bylines in over 30 journals and magazines and regularly appears on news outlets to discuss Afghanistan.
You can listen to his first song (Hold On, Reach Out) and learn more about his team’s effort to help decrease the number of suicides in the US Military community here
His latest book on US policy options for Afghanistan is here
Jason helped the Foreign Area Officer Association edit and publish a compilation of FAO essays about navigating new cultures. You can find it here.
His English as a Second Language book is a great aid for new Afghan refugees and can be found here
His book on leadership is available on Amazon
His national security and career advice column can be found at https://news.clearancejobs.com/author/jason-howk/
Jason has worked on Afghanistan since 2002 assisting the most senior Generals, Ambassadors, and policy-makers in building the Afghan National Army; developing the International Security Sector Reform (SSR) program in Kabul; conducting the U.S. and NATO strategic assessment of the Afghan War in 2009; helping the Afghan government create an Afghan Peace, Reintegration, and Reconciliation policy; and also leading two teams that monitored Afghanistan and Pakistan issues for senior Defense and Joint Staff leaders and the National Security Staff at the White House. He continues to monitor Afghanistan and leads the Global Friends of Afghanistan as they help Afghans raise their voices about their future.
In his spare time Jason works on conflict resolution and tolerance building as an interfaith leader. In 2017 he published an award-winning chronological modern-English interpretation of the Qur’an. The audience for the book are English speaking non-Muslims that know very little about Islam.
Publisher site Book review Purchase here
As part of his interfaith work Jason co-hosts a podcast that introduces the basic concepts of Islam and Muslim cultures called “We’re Just Talking About It” available on Apple podcasts and at Libsyn podcasting.
Jason Criss Howk 