Biography
James is a strategic studies consultant who also offers, educates and researches the maritime strategic perspective from seabed to space. He is also the Laughton-Corbett Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London and a British Academy Research Scholar.
You can read a comprehensive log of his work, research outputs and publications here.
His approach to his work and research, which focuses on strategic studies, developing strategic thought and theory, and maritime strategy, utilises the proven methods of applied history. James was awarded his PhD in ‘War and Strategic Studies’ from the Department of War Studies in 2021, which built on his MRes (Master of Research) qualification in 2015.
His PhD: “Deconstructing the Seapower State: Britain, America and Defence Unification 1945-1964” (2021), focused on British and American defence unification. Defence unification was the process by which the UK Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Defense were created. More specifically, his PhD explored and analysed the relationship between the development of strategic thought and theory and defence organisation while presenting a new history of defence organisation of the UK and US. The PhD research also unravelled topics such as the devaluation of the sea, maritime strategy, and navies in national agendas and defence and how they interlinked with growing issues such as the seabed, space, and weapons of mass destruction. It represented the conclusion of the best part of fifteen years of research and study. The research was completed while also being a non-resident Research Fellow of the U.S. Naval War College, where he retains that award to this day.
At King’s College London, James holds the title ‘Laughton-Corbett Research Fellow’. The post and title was created in 2022 to not only mark the centenary of the death of British historian, strategist, and philosopher of seapower and maritime strategy Sir Julian Corbett (1852-1922) ––of which James also pioneered the international ‘Corbett 100 project’–– but also in memory of Professor John Knox Laughton RN (1830-1915) who was one of the founders of military history, war studies and naval history. James is part of two School of Security Studies research themes: Strategic Studies and Military and Political History. He is a member of King’s Laughton Naval and Maritime Strategy Unit and King’s Centre for Grand Strategy. James, amongst others, founded the King’s Wargaming Network in 2018, having led naval wargaming research in the War Studies Department since 2016. The Wargaming Network is a research group within the School of Security Studies that aims to advance the theory and application of wargaming as a method of inquiry and as a method of learning and teaching. The scholars involved identified a need for scholarly research and academic outputs on wargaming to match the prevalent body of work focused on practice. In 2020, he became a member of King’s Defence Studies Air and Space Institute and affiliated with the Space Security Research Group.
James is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Historical Society. He is also engaged in various professional organisations, projects, associations and research groups in the UK, USA, Australia, and Japan.
A common rubric and theme across all aspects of James’s work is providing the maritime and maritime strategic perspective, which is rooted in the ‘applied history school’ where analysis of history and experience is fundamental.
Beyond working on multiple future publications, James is engaged in various journals and digital outputs like podcasts and blogs.
Research interests and outputs have specialised in:
The development of strategy, strategic thought, strategic theory (Major/Minor).
The theory and development of maritime strategy.
National Strategy, National Defence Strategy, National Security Strategy
Defence Organisation: American Defense Unification (DoD) and British Defence Unification (MoD) such as higher organisation, organisational and strategic culture, combined/jointness, command and control, civil-military relations.
Contemporary British and American Defence Policy, Strategy and History.
Contemporary Naval and Maritime History and Naval Warfare: Sea Power, Maritime Power, and Naval Power.
Strategic Space Theory, Space Warfare, ‘Astropolitics’ and ‘Astrostrategy’ (Incl. geostrategy and geopolitics), Defence Space Policy, Space History, Human activity in space near-Earth and beyond (outer and deep).
Future development of humanity as a spacefaring civilisation.
Wargaming: advancing research into the ‘art and philosophy’ of wargaming including the development, theory, and practice of wargaming.
Naval Wargaming: history, theory, and practice.
