John W. Spencer is a retired United States Army officer, researcher of urban warfare, and author. He currently serves as the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, codirector of the Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast at West Point.^[1] He is a founding member of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare.^[2]

He has commented on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His comments on the Israeli invasion of Gaza Strip have been controversial.^[3][4]

Spencer enlisted in the United States Army as a private, immediately after graduating from high school at the age of 17,^[5] eventually reaching the rank of Sergeant first class, until receiving commission; he retired from active service with the rank of major.^[6]

During his military career, he was infantry platoon leader and company commander, including two combat tours during the Iraq War. In Iraq, he served during the initial invasion in 2003 and later in 2008 during the Iraq War troop surge and the Battle of Sadr City.^[7][8] He was also assigned to Ranger School, Joint Chiefs of Staff, etc. Later he became a fellow with the chief of staff of the Strategic Studies Group, until he moved to Modern War Institute (MWI).^[9]

Spencer is currently a chair of urban warfare studies at the MWI and a colonel in the California State Guard, where he is assigned as the director of urban warfare training with the 40th Infantry Division.^[10]

During the summer of 2022, while Russian invasion of Ukraine was still in progress, he visited Ukraine, "to study the battle of Kyiv."^[11]

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he started giving advice on "how to resist the Russian invasions" through Twitter.^{[12][13][14][15][16]} This culminated in him releasing "The Mini-Manual for the Urban Defender: A Guide to the Strategies and Tactics of Defending a City", which was translated in more than 10 languages.^[17][18][19]

He is also a contributing editor at War on the Rocks.^[20]

John Spencer has praised the Israeli military's performance during its invasion of Gaza Strip, and interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.^[21] According to a foreign policy adviser of Netanyahu, Spencer believes "Israel sets the gold standard in terms of preserving civilian lives".^[22] Spencer claims that Israel's mass calling and texting of Gazan civilians, giving them days, and then weeks to evacuate, and roof knocking before airstrikes are practices that no military has ever implemented before.^[23]

John Spencer praised Israel's ratio of civilian casualties in Gaza as "historically low for modern warfare," citing IDF claims that 50-60% of Gazans killed were civilians and previous estimates of 80-90% of casualties in modern conflicts being civilians.^[24] While these claims were later picked up by Netanyahu, Professor Michael Spagat of the University of London writes that Spencer's conclusions, and the statistics he cites, are both false.^[25] The myth that 80-90% of casualties in war are civilians was popular among government officials in the 1990s, but by 2010 it had been debunked by the Red Cross, World Health Organization and others.^[26] Spagat points out that the Uppsala Conflict Data Program database of wars (1989-2017) shows 42–55% of casualties are civilians in modern warfare; in urban warfare, 40–70% of casualties are civilians.^[25] Spagat also estimates that 80% of Gaza casualties are civilians, concluding that civilian casualties in Gaza are higher than the average for both urban warfare and modern warfare.^[25]

Larry Lewis of Center for Naval Analyses has criticized Spencer's positions.^[3] He argues that IDF's order for 1 million Gazans to evacuate from northern Gaza to southern Gaza in 24 hour was deemed practically impossible by experts,^[27] and that Israel attacked civilians while they were evacuating and then again once the civilians were in southern Gaza. Lewis also questions the effectiveness of communication with cell phones, given widespread destruction of Gaza's infrastructure; and that interviews with Gazans after the 2014 war showed that the effectiveness of roof knocking was mixed due to confusion among civilians caused by Israel's tactics.^[3]

Maryam Jamshidi has also criticized John Spencer's praise of Israel's "precautionary measures" arguing that in reality such measures are ineffective and possibly even war crimes. She points out that many of Israel's evacuation orders contained errors, and Israel's order for 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate could be construed as collective punishment.^[28]

• Liam Collins and John Spencer, Understanding Urban Warfare (2022; ISBN 978-1912440351)
• John Spencer, Connected Soldiers: Life, Leadership, and Social Connections in Modern War (2022; ISBN 978-1640125124)

• Personal Web page