Dr. James Robbins Named New Intelligence Center Director

President Patricia McGuire announced the appointment of Dr. James S. Robbins as the director of Trinity’s Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence, which was established in 2004 with funding from the U.S. intelligence agencies. Robbins was previously a professor of international relations and dean of academics at the School for National Security Executive Education at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He has also taught at the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, VA, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, MA.

Robbins is a senior fellow in national security affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council. He is a former special assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and writes a national security column for National Review Online. His columns have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and other publications. He appears regularly on international television and radio including the BBC, Voice of America, Al Jazeera, MSNBC, and FNC among others.

Robbins holds a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and wrote his dissertation on “Soviet Counterinsurgency Strategy in Afghanistan, 1979-1989.” He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Cincinnati, where he also received a master’s in political science, and he earned a master of arts in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School. His research interests include terrorism and national security strategy, political theory and military history. Robbins is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Last in Their Class: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point.

Robbins is married to Major Elizabeth L. Robbins, US Army; she is currently serving in Strategic Effects, Multi-National Force Iraq, Baghdad. She is a 1992 West Point graduate and taught in the USMA Department of Social Sciences 2001-2004. She is the author of “Muddy Boots IO: The Rise of Soldier Blogs,” which won the 2006 United States Army Information Operations Writing Competition.

Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence at Trinity