Stephen Hunnewell

Communications Advisor

Stephen “Steve” Hunnewell is the Chief Communications Officer of the Irregular Warfare Initiative and a national security leader with nearly two decades of experience at the nexus of strategic influence, special operations, and emerging technology. He has led high-performing teams across the Department of Defense and industry, including senior roles with the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, MITRE, Premise Data, Two Six Technologies, and Novetta. At USINDOPACOM, he was selected to establish the Command’s Strategic Influence Office and led development of an Indo-Pacific sharp power framework to sustain cognitive advantage in strategic competition. His portfolio spans non-kinetic effects, economic statecraft, strategic influence, and technologies to detect, deter, and defeat malign influence campaigns.

Prior to his current role, Hunnewell served as a U.S. Army officer and later as a Counterinsurgency Advisor with NATO COMISAF’s Advisory and Assistance Team (CAAT) and the Department of Defense’s Pakistan–Afghanistan Coordination Cell (PACC). He subsequently built and led analytic and technology programs supporting U.S. and allied partners across Europe, Africa, the Levant, Latin America, and Asia. Hunnewell holds an M.A. in International Relations from The Fletcher School at Tufts University and an M.B.A. from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. His interests include political warfare, gray-zone competition, economic statecraft, and the intersection of AI and influence.