David E. Firester, Ph.D.
Founder & CEO, TRAC Intelligence, LLC

Email: [email protected]

ORCID: 0000-0003-2610-1486

---

Dr. David E. Firester is an intelligence and security scholar whose research explores the intersection of cognition, warfare, and institutional adaptation. He is the author of Failure to Adapt: How Strategic Blindness Undermines Intelligence, Warfare, and Perception (TRAC Intelligence Press, 2025), which examines why powerful states and organizations repeatedly fail to learn from their own mistakes.

A combat veteran with a rich background in public policy, security, counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and law enforcement, Dr. Firester bridges the worlds of theory and practice. His work has appeared in The Daily Wire, Investigative Project on Terrorism, Lima Charlie News, Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, The Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA), and Front Page Magazine.

Dr. Firester earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2023. His dissertation, Evolutions in Suicide Bombing: Exploring the Relationship Between the Tactic and Its Application by Non-State Armed Groups Across Various Conflict Zones Over Time, investigates how non-state actors adapt suicide operations in response to countermeasures, learning constraints, and changing strategic environments.
→ Read Dissertation (Open Access, CUNY Academic Works)

---

📚 Selected Works

• Failure to Adapt: How Strategic Blindness Undermines Intelligence, Warfare, and Perception (TRAC Intelligence Press, 2025)
  View on Amazon
• Evolutions in Suicide Bombing (Ph.D. Dissertation, CUNY Graduate Center, 2023)
• Read via CUNY Academic Works
• The Underdog Heuristic (forthcoming)

---

🌐 Connect

• LinkedIn
• Academia.edu
• ResearchGate
• Amazon Author Page
• TRAC Intelligence
  
  ⚖️ At a Glance
  Education: Ph.D., Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center (2023)
  Founder & CEO: TRAC Intelligence, LLC
  Areas of Expertise: Intelligence Studies, Terrorism, Counterinsurgency, Strategic Adaptation
  Publications: TRAC Intelligence Press (Author), numerous outlets on security and warfare