Jaron S. Wharton

Colonel Jaron S. Wharton is an infantry officer and a chief of staff of the Army senior fellow. He previously served on the Army’s People First Task Force and as the commander for the 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment. His military assignments include multiple positions in the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and several tours to Afghanistan and Iraq, including Operation Enduring Freedom I and Operation Iraqi Freedom I. He was on the National Security Council staff as a deputy executive secretary and later as the chief of staff to the deputy national security advisor for strategy. He also served as a special assistant to the under secretary of defense for policy and liaison to the president’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Department of State. He is a former White House fellow, term member at the Council on Foreign Relations, and fellow at the Center for New American Security. He is also a current research fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point. He holds a BS in political science from the United States Military Academy (2001), an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (2009), and both an MA (2017) and a PhD (2019) from Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy.