Paul is a retired US Army Warrant Officer, with a distinguished career in the US Special Operations counter-terrorism community, primarily focused on mitigating adversarial influence. Throughout his career, he has focused on the centrality of influence in modern conflict, whether from extremist organisations or state actors. He is now Vice President at Narrative Strategies, a US-based Think-Do Tank specializing in the non-kinetic aspects of conflict. He has co-authored "Soft Power on Hard Problems", "Introduction to Narrative Warfare: A Primer and Study Guide" and "Countering Violent Extremism".