Malcolm Wrightson Nance (born September 20, 1961) is an American author and media pundit. He is a former United States Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer specializing in naval cryptology. Nance is an intelligence and foreign policy analyst who frequently discusses the history, personalities, and organization of jihadi radicalization and al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS), Southwest Asian and African terror groups, as well as counterinsurgency and asymmetric warfare. Schooled in Arabic, he is active in the field of national security policy particularly, in anti- and counter-terrorism intelligence, terrorist strategy and tactics, torture and counter-ideology in combating Islamic extremism. In 2016, he published the book, Defeating ISIS: Who They Are, How They Fight, What They Believe, and published The Plot to Hack America the same year. In 2014, he founded and became the executive director of the Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics and Radical Ideologies (TAPSTRI), a Hudson, New York–based think tank. Early life and education Nance was born in Philadelphia. He attended the city's West Catholic Boys High School. He studied Spanish, French, and Latin, and took advantage of free classes in Russian and Chinese offered at South Philadelphia High School on Saturdays. In 2011, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York's Excelsior University. Nance began working in the civilian intelligence arena through research into the history of the Soviet Union and its spy agency the KGB. He subsequently analyzed Middle East terrorism and sovereign nations with ties to the Russian Federation. Military career Nance served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years from 1981 to 2001, receiving several military decorations. As a U.S. Navy specialist in Naval Cryptology, Nance was involved in numerous counter-terrorism, intelligence, and combat operations. He garnered expertise within the fields of intelligence and counterterrorism. He was an instructor in wartime and peacetime Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE), training Navy and Marine Corps pilots and aircrew how to survive as prisoners of war. There Nance helped to initiate the Advanced Terrorism, Abduction and Hostage Survival course of instruction. Nance took part in combat operations that occurred after the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, was peripherally involved with the 1986 United States bombing of Libya, served on USS Wainwright during Operation Praying Mantis and was aboard during the sinking of the Iranian missile boat Joshan, served on USS Tripoli during the Gulf War, and assisted during a Banja Luka,