Brian Castner is a Senior Advisor and Nonresident Fellow in the Conventional Defense Program at the Stimson Center. His work focuses on arms diversions, civilian harm, and the global arms trade. Prior to joining the Stimson Center, Castner was a Senior Crisis Advisor in Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Programme. In that role, he conducted on-the-ground investigations into war crimes and other violations of international law in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, and South Sudan. Castner is also a former Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) officer in the United States Air Force, where he served two combat tours in Iraq. In the military he specialized in unexploded ordnance, improvised explosive devices, post-blast investigations, and chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.
Castner is the author of four nonfiction books, including The Long Walk (Doubleday, 2012), which was a national bestseller and a New York Times Editor’s Pick. His journalism has appeared in the New York Times, Esquire, Wired, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, and on National Public Radio, and he has twice received grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, to cover the US military intervention in Liberia during the Ebola outbreak and the effects of climate change on indigenous villages in Arctic Canada.
Castner graduated from Marquette University, with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, in 1999, Naval School Explosive Ordnance Disposal in 2003, and Oklahoma State University, with an M.S. in Fire and Emergency Management, in 2007.
