M6 Leadership Spotlight: Sandor Fabian
Meet Dr. Sandor Fabian, our latest M6 leadership spotlight. Sandor is an M6 Warrior teammate and serves as the Lead for the European and African Regions at the Irregular Warfare Center. There, he supports the Department of Defense in better understanding and addressing irregular warfare-related trends and challenges across the department, interagency, and with our allies and partners. Sandor previously served as a Hungarian Special Forces Colonel and holds a Ph.D. in International Security. He has spent over a decade researching and publishing material about irregular warfare-related topics.
Tell us about your background and your current role with M6 supporting the Irregular Warfare Center (IWC).
I spent 24 years in the Hungarian military and in the Hungarian Special Forces. In 2017, I moved to the US to do my doctoral degree in international security. After I finished my PhD, I worked at a few defense contractors. When the opportunity to join the IWC came up, I decided to join part-time as a subject matter expert. After about six or seven months, Morgan 6 reached out to me and asked me if I would be interested in joining as a full-timer to the same contract.
Irregular warfare has been my passion throughout my professional career. I’ve been writing and researching the topic for a long time, and I looked at this opportunity as a great challenge and as a fulfillment of my professional and personal ambitions. So, I joined first as the Engagement and Outreach Chair. Recently, the IWC went through a reorganization. Now, I’m serving as the Lead for the European and African Regions. I’m responsible for developing a strategy in the irregular warfare space, and trying to identify opportunities – but also requirements – to help countries in Europe and Africa to better address irregular warfare-related trends and challenges that they are facing.
Covering two regions at the same time…it’s quite challenging. But, originally, I’m from Europe. So, there is a kind of a personal relationship there, and I have a vested interest in Europe’s future. So, that I really enjoy and I appreciate the opportunity.
What about M6 was appealing to you? Why did you join?
First of all, M6’s leadership is filled with former military guys and former Special Forces. So, that meant there was a familiar work environment and that I’d be familiar with the leadership style. After talking to the leadership team and looking at the fundamental values, I felt very strongly connected. I knew I could align myself with the values that M6 has.
Now having worked for them for over a year, I can confidently say that they are putting as much attention towards their employees and their employees’ needs as they put towards the mission. So it’s a very nice balance. They don’t overwork people. They take care of their employees because they definitely understand that, you know, a well balanced employee is the most effective. I really appreciate that.
What has been your most rewarding experience with M6 so far?
The mission of IWC is very close to my heart. The new National Security Strategy and the defense strategy are focusing on this great power or strategic competition with China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. A lot of attention is being paid to deterring, but in case deterrence fails, winning a conventional conflict. I think those adversaries understand that they cannot really challenge the U.S., and especially the U.S. with its allies and partners conventionally. So, they are doing a lot of activities under the threshold of a conventional conflict in the irregular warfare space. [That’s why the IWC] and the mission of this organization are critical to U.S. national security and globally to the allies and partners.
I find it very challenging, but – at the same time – critically important and very rewarding. And, M6 is providing all the tools and all the support that is necessary to be successful as a member of the IWC. I really appreciate the leadership, and I really appreciate the work environment that they have been creating. We have a team that is like-minded but that avoids group thinking. People come from diverse backgrounds, and we have built a very effective team. Our leadership trusts us. They are not necessarily directive in their leadership approach. Instead, they create opportunities for employees to be effective. They create the environment around each of the employees where you don’t have to worry about the conditions under which you work. If you need anything, you can reach out to them. They have an open door policy. That creates an opportunity for all employees to focus on the task at hand and the mission of the organization that we are actually supporting.
Can you share a recent project that you’ve worked on with M6 and the impact that it had?
All of my projects are related to the IWC. I’m currently running a study series based on looking at how different countries conceptualize irregular warfare: how they define it and what type of threats we are facing in that space. We started out with a European study. And most recently, we actually conducted a study in the Indo-Pacific region. And, the backend of the study is based on a survey and then semi-structured interviews with professional military institutions from seven different countries from the Indo-Pacific region.
After we published the study, we brought in one representative from each of these countries to Washington, D.C., and ran a two-day workshop. We were able to share how different or similar the whole idea of irregular warfare in different regions are as compared to the U.S. doctrinal definitions and concepts. And, we could highlight that to not just DoD, but outside of the DoD – to a lot of stakeholders across the U.S. government, and also to the public and the private sectors. So, these studies have a great impact. They help academics and industry understand how some countries – mostly allies and partners – understand the idea of irregular warfare and where the key differences are. Then, it helps the U.S. government to help these countries to better address whatever threats they are facing.
We have tried to create a common language when it comes to working alongside allies and partners, so the U.S. can be more effective. Because of this, we’re more likely to achieve national security goals in those regions.
What M6 values resonate with you?
I’m a lifelong learner, and identify with ‘Iron Sharpens Iron’ and ‘The Relentless Pursuit of Excellence.’ That is something that’s really close to me. The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know and how much is out there, and how much better you can become in the profession you are pursuing.
Overall, though, I am pretty aligned with most of the values of the company – that was one of the reasons why I accepted the request from M6 to join. Many companies have very high ambitions when it comes to values, but my experience with M6 is that they actually adhere to them.
What aspects of M6’s mission or operations keep you engaged?
The organization itself is what we call a bottom-up organization. The leadership provides guidance and expectations, but you are working in an environment where they trust your initiative, and also your creativity and your professionalism. So, it is very, very engaging to be working under these conditions and in an organization, when you can pretty much contribute as best as you can. And then leadership’s first questions are, “How can we help? How can we make this happen? What do you need?” So I find it very, very engaging and in like, working there for over a year now, it’s also been very effective and very productive.
How does working at M6 align with your career goals?
For the last 10 years, I’ve been researching irregular warfare-related topics, but the creation of the IWC opened up the scope quite a bit. It’s not only an academic, research-focused institution. We also are doing a lot of education and training. We are doing competencies. We are doing workshops, and the list goes on and on. This role opened up the opportunity to learn in other areas that I was not necessarily so involved in, and also provides access to people who are already working in those areas. So, my professional network increased. I met a lot of new people, and, you know, meeting new people who are working in other areas or other domains and having discussions with them opened my mind up to new ideas and helped me to recognize where my previous arguments might be lacking or where they fell short. So it’s a huge professional step forward for me getting access to these other subject matter experts.
What’s something interesting or unique about you that others might not know?
I’ve been called the International Man of Mystery. Not many people know about my background. Throughout my life, I have traveled to 47 countries; I lived in three different countries. I’m not 100% sure if it’s true anymore, but at some point as a foreign officer, I got more training in the U.S. military than any U.S. military officer. In part of the international military education and training program, I was trained and educated in 11 different countries. And, I am old enough to still have gotten some education and training in the old former Warsaw Pact system because Hungary was part of the Warsaw Pact. But, I’m also young enough to have been indoctrinated and educated and trained in the western or U.S. system as well. So, I have what I would consider to be a unique mix of understanding of the Eastern and Western military and strategic concepts.
Rapid Fire Questions
What is the best title you’ve ever had, personal or professional?
Special Forces Company Commander.
What’s the best location you are stationed or a place that you’d want to be stationed? If you had the choice?
Orlando, Florida where I live right now. I did my Ph.D. here. I really like living here.
What can we find you doing in your free time?
Lifting weights, running, playing soccer, and enjoying the pool.
What’s your go to news source?
I like Reuters because it’s not partisan in any way. I also like the BBC.
Are there any books or movies that you’ve watched or read lately that you think are amazing that you’d want to tell people about?
Two books. One is Sean McFate’s New Rules of War because it’s very aligned with my thinking. And the other one is an older book. It’s called the Transformation of War by Martin Van Creveld, who is an Israeli economist.
I go to the movies all the time. The latest one I saw was Inside Out 2 with my daughter. It was a perfect movie because it’s about a 13-14 year old teenager and what’s going on in her mind. Every two minutes I looked at her and said, “It’s you!”
Who would you most like to have dinner with or be stuck on a desert island with?
Whoever is the President of the United States so I could have a conversation about the world and to give some advice: working with allies and partners is not just lip service. When you talk about communication, move away from the U.S. way of communication. There are people who have something to say. Sometimes, when you listen to your friends, you can be more effective and you can be more effective for less money.