Allen F. Chew was a research fellow from July 1979 to June 1981 at the Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth. He received his doctorate at Georgetown University in Russian history, and he has taught in that field for the University of Maryland, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where he also served as chairman of the history department.

Among his publications are An Atlas of Russian History (Yale University Press) and The White Death: The Epic of the Soviet-Finnish Winter War (Michigan State University Press). He is also a regular contributor to Military Review and other professional journals.