John Spencer

John Spencer is Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point (United States Military Academy). He is a retired U.S. Army Major with combat deployments to Iraq, where he conducted urban warfare operations in Mosul and other cities. His academic specialty is urban warfare — the most complex and civilian-casualty-prone form of military engagement. He has written extensively on the IDF's operations in Gaza, specifically analyzing them against the standard of other modern urban warfare campaigns and concluding that the IDF has implemented more civilian protection measures than any military in modern history. His credibility on proportionality claims is grounded in direct operational experience in comparable environments.