‍Dr. Benjamin J. Sacks FRGS is Professor of Political Geography at the RAND School of Public Policy. He possesses over a decade of professional policy experience as one of the few recognized applied geographers in U.S. national security today, most recently for over six years at The RAND Corporation. Sacks routinely briefs U.S., British, and allied agencies on the spatial competitive dimensions of such critical contested zones as the Arctic, Antarctic, South China Sea, electromagnetic spectrum, and the Strait of Hormuz and other global chokepoints. A highly-experienced and -cited global risk expert across security, energy, communications, and geopolitical domains, Sacks often provides on-call expertise for major global news outlets. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, his Ph.D. and M.A. at Princeton University, and his B.A. at Tufts University, all in History (Political Geography). He is currently authoring a groundbreaking book articulating how real-world geographic expertise can lead to more effective national security policies. Sacks is an Elected Fellow of and Professional Ambassador for the Royal Geographical Society, Fellow of the American Geographical Society, member of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and a 2009 national Beinecke Scholar.