Contact Info

Research Professor

Jeffrey Larsen is a Research Professor in the Department of National Security Affairs, US Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA. From 2013-2018 he served as a member of the Command Group and Director of the Research Division at the NATO Defense College in Rome, Italy. Prior to that assignment, he served for 16 years as a senior policy analyst with Science Applications International Corporation in Colorado Springs, CO, working on contracts supporting the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, US Air Force Headquarters, US Space Command, US Northern Command, and US Strategic Command. He previously completed a 21-year career in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a Lt Colonel after serving as a KC-135 command pilot in Strategic Air Command, Associate Professor of Political Science and instructor pilot at the Air Force Academy, and founding director of the Air Force Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).

Dr. Larsen is also President and CEO of Larsen Consulting Group LLC He has been an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, the Josef Korbel School at the University of Denver, and the George HW Bush School at Texas A&M University.  He was NATO’s 2005 Manfred Wörner Fellow, as well as a 1996 NATO Fulbright Research Fellow. He twice won SAIC’s annual publication prize. He was elected to the governing council of the International Security Section of the American Political Science Association, serving as both chair and treasurer, and to two terms on the governing council of the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association.

A native of Wisconsin, Dr. Larsen holds a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University (1991), a Masters’ degree in international relations from Princeton (1990), a Master’s in West European area studies, national security affairs, and German from the Naval Postgraduate School (1985), and a Bachelor’s degree in Soviet area studies from the US Air Force Academy (1976).  He is the author or editor of more than 150 books, journal articles, chapters, and monographs, and serves on the editorial boards of book series by Palgrave Macmillan and the OSD Historian’s Office.

Teaching Interests

Nuclear Weapons and Policies

Arms Control

NATO

Comparative European Foreign and Defense Policies

US National Security

Russian Foreign and Defense Policy

Selected Publications

• “Projecting Stability: NATO’s ‘New’ Mission to the South,” with Kevin Koehler, in Eugenio Cusumano and Stefan Hofmaier, eds., Projecting Resilience Across the Mediterranean (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2019)
• “NATO Nuclear Adaptation since 2014: The Return of Deterrence,” in NATO 70^th Anniversary special edition of Journal of Transatlantic Studies (forthcoming 2018)
• Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Essential Reference Guide, edited with James Wirtz and Eric Croddy (New York: ABC/Clio Praeger, 2018)
• “NATO, Russia, and the Warsaw Pact: The Return of Deterrence,” NDC Vox Collegi (February 2017)
• “NATO’s Responses to Russian Belligerence: An Overview,” in NATO and Collective Defence in the 21st Century, edited by Karsten Friis (New York: Taylor & Frances, 2017)
• “Strategic Priorities for NATO in the Security Environment of 2016,” report for the Aspen Institute Legislators Conference, Berlin, May 2016
• “Expectation for the Warsaw Summit: Conventional and Nuclear Responses to Russian Belligerence,” NUPI Policy Brief 16/2016, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, 2016
• “Time to Face Reality: Priorities for NATO’s 2016 Warsaw Summit,” NDC Research Paper 126, NATO Defense College, January 2016
• “NATO Nuclear Policy, the Ukraine Crisis, and the Wales Summit”, in Nuclear Threats and Security Challenges, edited by S. Apikyan & D. Diamond, NATO Science for Peace and Security Series, Springer Science+Business Media, Dordrecht, 2015, pp 85-95
• “US Extended Deterrence Models for Europe and Asia,” in The Future of Extended Deterrence in Europe, edited by Stefanie von Hlatky and Andreas Wenger (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2015)
• “Introduction: A New Way of Warfare,” in NATO’s Response to Hybrid Threats, edited with Guillaume Lasconjarias (Rome: NATO Defense College, 2015)
• “NATO Nuclear Policy, the Ukraine Crisis, and the Wales Summit,” in Samuel Apikyan and David Diamond, eds., Nuclear Threats and Security Challenges (Dordrecht, Netherlands, 2015)
• NATO Responses to Hybrid Threats, co-edited with Guillaume Lasconjarias (Rome: NATO Defense College, 2015)
• On Limited Nuclear War in the 21st Century, co-edited with Kerry Kartchner (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014, Korean edition 2017) (winner, USAF Maj Gen Robert Linhard Award)
• “Limited War and the Introduction of Nuclear Weapons,” in On Limited Nuclear War in the 21st Century, edited by Kerry Kartchner and Jeffrey Larsen (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2014)
• Responding to Catastrophic Events: Consequence Management and Policy, editor (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
• “Introduction: Dealing with Disaster,” in Responding to Catastrophic Events: Consequence Management and Policy, edited by Jeffrey Larsen (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
• “Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons: An American Perspective,” in Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO, edited by Tom Nichols, Douglas Stuart, and Jeffrey McCausland (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, 2012)
• “Strategic Arms Control since World War Two,” in The Encyclopedia of Arms Control (Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2012) 
• “Strategic Arms Control since the End of the Cold War,” in Arms Control: History, Theory, and Policy, edited by Robert Williams and Paul Viotti (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2011)
• “Future Options for NATO Nuclear Policy,” Issue Brief, The Atlantic Council of the United States, August 2011
• “Arms Control in the Obama Administration: Coming in From the Cold,” Strategic Insights, Center for Contemporary Conflict, Naval Postgraduate School, Vol. VIII, Issue 2 (April 2009)
• Arms Control and Cooperative Security, co-editor with James Wirtz (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2009)
• Strategic Culture and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Culturally Based Insights into Comparative National Security Policy Making, co-editor with Jeannie Johnson and Kerry Kartchner (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
• Naval Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Operations: Stability from the Sea, co-editor with James Wirtz (London: Routledge Press, 2008; paperback version 2015)
• “WMD Terrorism: New Threats, Revised Responses,” with Jim Wirtz, in Terrorism and Homeland Security: Thinking Strategically about Policy, edited by Paul Viotti, Michael Opheim, and Nicholas Bowen (New York: Taylor and Francis, 2008)
• “Emerging Missile Challenges and Improving Active Defenses,” in Countering WMD: A Decade of Effort, edited by Jim A. Davis, Barry R. Schneider, and Peter Lavoy (Montgomery, AL: USAF Counterproliferation Center, 2005)
• Nuclear Transformation: The New U.S. Nuclear Doctrine, co-editor with James J. Wirtz (New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005)
• Historical Dictionary of Arms Control and Disarmament, with James M. Smith (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005)
• Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Encyclopedia of Worldwide Policy, Technology, and History (2 vols.), managing editor, James J. Wirtz and Eric A. Croddy, eds. (Boulder, CO: ABC Clio, 2004)
• The First 600 Days of Combat: The U.S. Air Force in the Global War on Terrorism, editor; lead author Rebecca Grant (Washington, DC: IRIS Press, 2004)
• Arms Control: Cooperative Security in a Changing Environment, editor (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Press, 2002)
• Controlling Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons: Obstacles and Opportunities, editor, with Kurt J. Klingenberger (Colorado Springs, CO: USAF Institute for National Security Studies, 2001)
• Rockets’ Red Glare: Missile Defenses and the Future of World Politics, co-editor with James J. Wirtz (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001)
• Arms Control in the Asia-Pacific Region, editor, with Thomas D. Miller (Colorado Springs:  USAF Institute for National Security Studies, 1999)
• Arms Control Toward the 21st Century, co-editor with Gregory J. Rattray (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996) (Chinese edition 1998)