Experts

Spencer D. Bakich

Fast Facts

  • Director of the National Security Program, Virginia Military Institute
  • Recipient, 2023 SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award
  • Expertise on wartime diplomacy and strategy, coercive diplomacy, American grand strategy, cybersecurity

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • American Defense and Security
  • War and Terrorism
  • Governance
  • The Presidency

Spencer D. Bakich is a professor of international studies and the director of the National Security Program at the Virginia Military Institute. He is the author of The Gulf War: George H. W. Bush and American Grand Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era (Kansas, 2024) and Success and Failure in Limited War: Information and Strategy in the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and Iraq Wars (Chicago, 2014), as well as articles, book chapters, and essays on wartime diplomacy and strategy, coercive diplomacy, American grand strategy, and cybersecurity. His commentary has been featured in The National Interest, USA Today, The Washington Post, and The Strategy Bridge

Bakich earned a BA in international affairs and economics from James Madison University (magna cum laude) and an MA and PhD in politics at the University of Virginia. He is the recipient of a 2023 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

Spencer D. Bakich News Feed

Drawing extensively from the Miller Center's presidential oral histories, Craig Whitlock's new book, The Afghanistan Papers, tells the story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about America’s longest war, foreshadowing the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan. The author discusses his book with Miller Center senior fellow Spencer Bakich, an expert in U.S. national security policy.
Spencer D. Bakich Miller Center Presents
Since his assumption of power in December 2011, Kim Jong-un reinforced the state ideology of juche, which emphasizes the principles of self-sufficiency and independence in a hostile world.
Spencer D. Bakich The National Interest