Faculty

Profile

James Holmes is professor of strategy at the Naval War College and senior fellow at the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs. A former U.S. Navy surface warfare officer, he served as military professor at the Naval War College, College of Distance Education, and as director of a steam engineering course at the Surface Warfare Officers School Command. On sea duty he served as an engineering and gunnery officer on board the battleship Wisconsin. He is a combat veteran of the first Gulf War.

Jim is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vanderbilt University (B.A., mathematics and German) and earned graduate degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (M.A.L.D. and Ph.D., international relations), Providence College (M.A., mathematics), and Salve Regina University (M.A., international relations). He was the recipient of the Naval War College Foundation Award in 1994, signifying the top graduate in his Naval War College class.

He has been a visiting scholar at the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University (Taipei), and the Institute for Defense Studies & Analyses (New Delhi). He has testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and spoken at such institutions as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, French Institute of International Relations (Paris), Center for a New American Security, German Marshall Fund, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Clingendael Institute of International Relations (The Hague), Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies (Taipei), and China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (Beijing).

Jim's most recent book is Strategy in the Second Nuclear Age: Power, Ambition, and the Ultimate Weapon (co-edited with Toshi Yoshihara). Under contract is Naval Diplomats: The U.S. Asiatic Fleet. Red Star over the Pacific: China’s Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy (with Toshi Yoshihara; paperback, forthcoming 2013) was an Atlantic Monthly Best Book of 2010 and a U.S. Naval Institute Notable Naval Book for 2010. It has been translated into German and Korean and is undergoing translation in Japan and Taiwan. The China Social Sciences Press, an arm of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is publishing a Mandarin edition. The U.S. Navy Staff named it to the Navy Professional Reading List as “Essential Reading,” placing copies aboard every major ship, squadron, and station in the service.

He is the author or co-author of 20 book chapters and over 100 scholarly articles, as well as over 300 opinion columns for such outlets as CNN, the Providence Journal, Taipei Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald, where he was a staff columnist from 2001-2007. He is a defense analyst for The Diplomat, a Real Clear World Top 5 World News Site for 2010 and 2011, where he blogs as The Naval Diplomat.

His work has been quoted or cited in such outlets as Asahi Shimbun (Japan), El Mercurio (Chile), the Financial Times, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, Xinhua, and The Hindu. He has appeared on National Public Radio and the BBC World Service.