About

Celestino Perez Bio Header

AT A GLANCE:
Chair of Executive and Strategic Leadership at the U.S. Army War College / Director of Carlisle Scholars

RESEARCH AREAS:
鈥 Leader Development
鈥 Political Judgement
鈥 Strategy
鈥 Military Ethics
鈥 American Military/Democracy


BIOGRAPHY:
is the Chair of Executive and Strategic Leadership at the U.S. Army War College.  He also serves as an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University鈥檚 School of International and Public Affairs.  At Carlisle Barracks, Celestino directs the Carlisle Scholars Program鈥擫eader Immersion Labs, which privileges experiential, problem-based learning for sixteen select national security leaders. These professionals, which include military, civilian, and international graduate students, learn and apply cutting-edge scholarship on policy, war, leadership, and military ethics to policy and strategy formulation.  His research interests include leader development, political judgment, strategy, military ethics, and the relationship between the American military and democracy.  He is especially interested in 鈥渂ridging the gap鈥 between political science and the real-world challenges that political and military leaders confront.  

Perez holds a BS in American Politics from West Point (1992) and an MA (2002) and PhD (2008) in political science (political theory) from Indiana University at Bloomington. He is a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Army War College with a Master in Strategic Studies.  His scholarly work appears in the Journal of Military Ethics, Peace Review, Armed Forces & Society, and Perspectives on Politics.  His public and professional essays have appeared in Joint Forces Quarterly, Military Review, War on the Rocks, Political Violence @ a Glance, and Strategy Bridge.  He has also published an edited volume entitled Addressing the Fog of Cog: Perspectives on the Center of Gravity in U.S. Military Doctrine with Combat Studies Institute Press (2012).

On October 31st, 2021, Perez retired as a colonel after 30 years of service in the U.S. Army.  He served as an armor officer and strategist with key assignments as a task force commander in Iraq, a speechwriter and strategic advisor in Afghanistan, and as the Director of Plans at U.S. Army North in San Antonio, TX.  His previous teaching assignments include service at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in the Department of Social Sciences and at the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College as Director of the Local Dynamics of War Scholars Program.

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