James Jay Carafano

James Jay Carafano, a leading expert in America’s national security and foreign policy challenges, is the  Washington-based Heritage Foundation’s former vice president for foreign and defence policy studies and director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies.

Before assuming responsibility for Heritage’s defence and foreign policy team in December 2012, Dr. Carafano had served as deputy director of the Davis Institute as well as director of its Douglas and Sarah Allison Centre for Foreign Policy Studies since 2009.

Dr. Carafano is a 25-year army veteran who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and served in Europe, Korea and the U.S. His assignments included head speechwriter for the Army Chief of Staff, the service’s highest-ranking officer.

Dr. Carafano joined the Heritage Foundation as a senior research fellow in 2003. He had been a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington policy institute dedicated to defence issues.

He holds a master’s degree and a doctorate from Georgetown University, as well as a master’s degree in strategy from the U.S. Army War College. He was a visiting professor at the National Defence University and Georgetown University as well as other institutions.

He previously served as an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, and as director of military studies at the army’s Centre of Military History. He was a fleet professor at the U.S. Naval War College.