James Van de Velde

James Van de Velde

James Van de Velde

Adjunct Faculty

• Cyber Issues/Network Warfare • Military Strategy/National Security Affairs • Counter Proliferation • Counter Terrorism Analyst • WMD Analyst • Nuclear Weapons Arms Control/Deterrence • Northeast Asia Politics • Afghanistan/Syria/al Qaida Analyst • Interrogator/Strategic Debriefer

James Van de Velde, Ph.D., LCDR USNR-retired, currently a cyber, WMD, intelligence, and counterterrorism analyst at the consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, is an Associate Professor at the US National Intelligence University and Adjunct Faculty Member at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown University. He is a former Yale University Lecturer and residential college dean, State Department Foreign Service Officer, and strategic nuclear weapons arms control negotiator, and has served as a naval intelligence reserve officer for over 22 years.

Current Research

cyberspace issues

Expanded Publication List

eBook:

  • Cyberspace and the Era of Persistent Confrontation, October 2019

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/985688

 

Articles:

  • “Top Ten Statements Regarding Jihadist Use Of The Internet Designed Specifically To Upset Millennials!” (forthcoming)
  • “When Does Election Interference Via Cyberspace Violate Sovereignty? Violations of Sovereignty, ‘Armed Attack,’ Acts of War, and Activities ‘Below the Threshold of Armed Conflict’ via Cyberspace” (forthcoming), for the proposed anthology, Democracy in the Crosshairs: Cyber Interference, Dark Money, and Foreign Influence, Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law Center
  • “What Comes After ‘Persistent Engagement?’ ‘3G’ (‘Gates,’ ‘Guards,’ and ‘Guns’),” The Cipher Brief, August 28, 2019

https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/cyber/after-persistent-cyber-engagement-comes-gates-guards-and-guns?mc_cid=6da8829760&mc_eid=d246efca79

  • “Time to Fight Back Against China's Massive Intellectual Property Theft,” The American Thinker, January 18, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/time_to_fight_back_against_chinas_massive_intellectual_property_theft.html

  • “Cyber's Future is Cloudy With a Chance of Persistent Authoritarianism,” The Cipher Brief, August 22, 2018

https://www.thecipherbrief.com/cyber-forecast-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-persistent-authoritarianism

  • “Make Cyberspace Great Again Too!,” Real Clear Defense, July 23, 2018

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/07/23/make_cyberspace_great_again_too_113634.html

  • “The Shortsightedness of Obama-Era Cyberspace Operations Policy,” The Cipher Brief, June 21, 2018

https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column/opinion/short-sightedness-obama-era-cyber-operations-policy

  • “Why Cyber Norms Are Dumb and Advance Russian Interests,” The Cipher Brief, June 6, 2018

https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/cyber-norms-dumb-serve-russian-interests

  • “Trump Effect Comes to Afghanistan,” Real Clear Defense, May 12, 2018

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/05/12/trump_effect_comes_to_afghanistan_113435.html

https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/exclusive/tech/fifth-domain-wont-sole-battleground

  • “Russia is at ‘Info War’ With the United States,” The Cipher Brief, November 17, 2016

https://www.thecipherbrief.com/russia-is-at-info-war-with-the-united-states?utm_source=Join+the+Community+Subscribers&utm_campaign=a9fe7e726e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_30_03_21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_02cbee778d-a9fe7e726e-122448877&mc_cid=a9fe7e726e&mc_eid=d246efca79

  • “Go Ahead. Let Japan and South Korea Go Nuclear,” The National Interest, October 1, 2016

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/go-ahead-let-japan-south-korea-go-nuclear-17897

  • “’War in Peace:’ Cyberspace and the Era of Persistent Confrontation,” The American Interest, September 5, 2016

http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/09/06/war-in-peace/

  • “How to Defeat ISIS: Crash Their Comms,” The American Interest, June 10, 2015

https://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/06/10/crash-their-comms/

  • “Syria’s Future is Sectarian Division,” Small Wars Journal, May 2, 2014

 

  • “Syria’s Deepening Hell,” The American Interest, May/June 2013

http://www.the-american-interest.com/index.cfm

  • “Ending al-Qaeda,” (cover story) The American Interest, July/August 2011

http://www.the-american-interest.com/contents.cfm

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1057610X.2010.494155

  • Five Counter Terrorism Communications Center messages, including three counter-Osama bin Laden messages, sent to 3000 US Government public diplomacy and public affairs experts to guide US counter terrorism messaging, July 2007-January 2008
  • “Camp Chaos: US Counterterrorism Operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,” International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, Volume 18, Number 3, Fall 2005

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08850600590945470

  • Fifteen Defense Intelligence Agency ‘Intelligence Summaries’ for senior policy leadership (classified Secret-Top Secret/SCI); numerous Desknotes to the Director of Intelligence, Intelligence Memorandums, and Analyst Notes to specific senior leadership including the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, March 2002-August 2003
  • “Analysis by an Intelligence Analyst on the War Against Iraq,” The Hartford Courant Sunday Magazine, March 30, 2003
  • Eight Executive Highlights and twenty-five Notes in Brief Reports, J2, Intelligence Directorate (classified publications), May-September 2002
  • “Truman on Trial: Not Guilty,” History News Network, George Mason University, July 5, 2002 http://hnn.us/articles/180.html
  • “Let’s Improve the Rhetoric Regarding Star Wars This Time,” Strategic Review, Fall 1999
  • “Advance North Korean Collapse,” Strategic Review, Summer 1999
  • “NCND at Sea Still Alive and Consistent with International Law,” Naval Law Review, Vol. 45
  • “The Growth of Criminal Organizations and Insurgent Groups Abroad Due to International Drug Trafficking,” Low Intensity Conflict and Law Enforcement, 5, Winter 1996, Number 3
  • “The Enola Gay Saved Lives,” Political Science Quarterly, 110, Number 3, Fall 1995
  • “Pearl Harbor--It Could Have Been Worse,” Naval Institute Proceedings, December 1991
  • “Japan’s Nuclear Umbrella,” The Journal of Northeast Asian Studies, Vol. VII, Number 4, Winter 1988
  • “US Extended Nuclear Deterrence for Japan,” Harvard Occasional Paper, The Program on US-Japan Relations, Harvard University, Spring 1988
  • “Article Nine of the Postwar Japanese Constitution: Codified Ambiguity,” The Journal of Northeast Asian Studies. VI, Number 1, Spring 1987
  • “Security Issues of Korea: Past, Present and Future,” Institute Report, Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea, August 1983
  • “The Northern Territories and US-Japan Relations,” The Yomiuri Shimbun, January 11, 1983

 

Op-Eds:

  • “Timidity Causes Syrian Barbarity,” The Jerusalem Post, October 23, 2012

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=289017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1995/02/10/enola-gay-saved-lives-period/7bfa9a8a-e4e6-4f7d-bfbe-348030637170/?utm_term=.be2688730484

  • “The Drug War is Over and We Lost,” The New Haven Register, February 5, 1995
  • “Shooting of Colombian Drug Lord Won’t Put Cartels Out of Business,” The New Haven Register, December 12, 1993

 

Reviews:

  • Drugs and Foreign Policy by Raphael Perl, in The Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, 36, No. 2, Summer 1994

 

Letters to the Editor:

  • “Warship Secrecy is Rooted in Law,” The New York Times, May 23, 1988
  • “China Not a Superpower Soon,” The New York Times, February, 1988
  • “Soviet and Japanese Claims to the Kuriles,” The New York Times, February 14, 1986

 

Other (Invited Speaker):

  • “Terrorism and Cyberspace,” Cyber Beacon Conference, The National Defense University, November 13-14, 2019
  • “Warfare in Peacetime,” The International Conference on Current Security Threats, Parliament of the Czech Republic, October 21-22, 2019. The presentation was covered by Ceske Noviny:

https://www.ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/expert-z-usa-rusko-a-cina-maji-v-kyberprostoru-prevahu-nad-nato/1811665) and was also posted to the Parliament’s website:

http://zacek-pavel.cz/mezinarodni-konference-aktualni-bezpecnostni-hrozby-ii-21-10-2019-poslanecka-snemovna/

  • Foreign Interference in the Democratic Process: Countdown to the Midterms, Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL), University of Pennsylvania, November 2-4, 2018
  • The International Cybersecurity Forum, Lille, France, January 23-24, 2018
  • The Basics and Backgrounder on WMD and WMD-Terrorism, a presentation to the National Defense College, United Arab Emirates, September 2016
  • “Terror Pornography, Gateway Websites, Drive-Thru Radicalization, and Jihadi Cyber Weapons,” a presentation to
    • the Savannah Business Council, Savannah, Georgia, July 2015
    • the Aventura Business Council, Aventura, Florida April 2014
    • the Yuval Ne'eman Workshop and the National Cyber Bureau's 3rd Annual International Cyber Security Conference, Tel Aviv Israel, June 12, 2013
  • Jihadist Use of the Internet, a presentation and panel participation to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee annual convention, 4-5 March 2012
  • Cyber Brief To The Homeland Security Forum, (visiting legislators from Europe, Israel, Canada), May 23, 2011

al Qaeda and WMD, Presentation to the Conference, “Tracking Terrorism in 21st Century: A National Symposium on the Roles of Science and Law in Detecting, Investigating and Adjudicating Political Violence,” Duquesne University School of Law, October 22, 2004

  • ‘Spies and Lies’ (a trivia board game based on contemporary US intelligence and covert action)
  • Web Site on Foreign Affairs and National Security, Yale University

Courses Taught

Associate Professor, National Intelligence University

  • Northeast Asia: Geostrategic Intelligence Issues (winter 2014-2015; 2016-2017; summer 2018)
  • Intelligence Collection (summer 2015, 2016)
  • Cyber Intelligence (fall 2016)
  • Foreign Information and Cyber Strategies (winter 2016; spring 2018)
  • WMD Terrorism (spring 2016; summer 2019, spring 2020)
  • Thesis Methodology and Design (spring 2019)

 

Adjunct Faculty, Johns Hopkins University

  • Great Power Competition: How States ‘Fight’ Below the Level of Armed Conflict (fall 2021)
  • Violent Islamist Extremism and the American Response (fall 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)

 

Adjunct Faculty, Georgetown University

  • WMD Terrorism (spring 2016, 2018, 2019)
  • Research Seminar (the second-year graduate course for one’s thesis) (spring 2014; 2015)

 

Lecturer, Yale University

  • Strategy and Policy in the Conduct of War (fall 1998)
  • The Art of Diplomacy (spring 1994, 1995, fall 1998)
  • International Drug Trafficking (fall 1995, 1996)
  • Intelligence Collection and Analysis (spring 1996)

 

Teaching Assistant, Stanford University

  • Arms Control and International Stability (spring 1986)

 

Education

  • PhD, International Security Studies with High Honors in American and Asian History, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1988. GPA: 3.74. Thesis, ‘Japan’s Emergence into Western Security Doctrine.’ (The thesis traced the change in Japan from reluctant, post-war client to the American cold war security framework in Asia to willing ally of American security policy worldwide, including the US extended nuclear deterrence policy in Asia.)
  • Fellow, U.S.-Japan Program, Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 1987-1988
  • Fellow, Center for International Security and Arms Control, Stanford University, 1985-1987
  • BA, cum laude, with Distinction in the Major, Political Science, Yale University, 1982. GPA: 3.4. Sumitomo Fellowship Winner. Voted National Chairman, US-Japan Student Conference, 1981