Spencer D. Bakich

Spencer Bakich is a professor of international studies and the Director of the National Security Program at the Virginia Military Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center.  Specializing in strategic studies and American foreign policy, Dr. Bakich teaches courses on U.S. national security policy, U.S.-China relations, and military strategy.  

Dr. Bakich is the author of The Gulf War: George H. W. Bush and American Grand Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era (Kansas, 2024), Success and Failure in Limited War: Information and Strategy in the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and Iraq Wars (Chicago, 2014), and is co-editor of Sources of Great Power Competition: Rising Powers, Grand Strategy, and System Dynamics (Routledge, 2025).  Dr. Bakich's commentary has been featured in The National Interest, USA Today, The Washington Post, and The Strategy Bridge.

Dr. Bakich has participated in governmental and professional workshops and projects, the sponsors of which include the National Intelligence Council, United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, the Project on Civilian-Military Educational Cooperation, and the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum.  As a Senior Fellow in Presidential Studies at the Miller Center, Dr. Bakich has interviewed numerous senior policymakers, military officers, and Foreign Service officers who served in the George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama administrations.  

A recipient of the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) Outstanding Faculty Award in 2023, Dr. Bakich earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Politics at the University of Virginia, and his B.A. magna cum laude from James Madison University.