Professor Gary Brown

Gary Brown is Professor of Cyber Law at the College of Information and Cyberspace, National Defense University, Washington, DC.  He has been a Cyber Policy and Strategy Analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Staff Strategy, Plans, and Policy (J5), Cyber Policy Division, and Professor of Cyber Security at Marine Corps University, Quantico, Virginia. He served 24 years as a judge advocate with the United States Air Force.  Professor Brown deployed twice to the Middle East during his Air Force career, the second time as the senior legal advisor for combat air operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.  In his final military assignment, he was the first senior legal counsel for U.S. Cyber Command, Fort Meade, Maryland, where he served for three years. 

Professor Brown has authored several articles and book chapters related to cyber warfare, including “Commentary on the law of cyber operations and the DoD Law of War Manual,” in The United States Department of Defense Law of War Manual Commentary and Critique (2018); “International Law Applies to Cyberwarfare! Now What?”, Southwestern Law Review (2017); “Spying and Fighting in Cyberspace,” Journal of Nat’l Security Law & Policy (2016); “Easier Said Than Done:  Legal Reviews of Cyber Weapons,” Journal of Nat’l Security Law & Policy (2014) (coauthor); “On the Spectrum of Cyberspace Operations,” Small Wars Journal (2012) (coauthor); and “Why Iran Didn’t Admit Stuxnet Was an Attack,” Joint Forces Quarterly (2011).  He was the official U.S. observer to the drafting of the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare (2013), and is a member of the International Group of Experts that authored Tallinn Manual 2.0 (2017).

He is also active in the educational uses of cyber wargames, consulting on the design of games to train, and advocating the inclusion of law of armed conflict concepts in recreational games.  Brown has a law degree from the University of Nebraska and an LL.M. in international law from Cambridge University.