He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh, and his B.A. in political science from Geneva College. He spent more than a decade in Washington, D.C. working alongside U.S. and foreign intelligence, as well as with law enforcement agencies, with the media, consulting firms, the U.S. Navy, and information giant LexisNexis. He now serves on the faculty advisory board of the Values & Capitalism project at the American Enterprise Institute, and was a 2010 fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He lives in Corona with his wife and two children.