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James Lockhart

Assistant Professor of Intelligence and National Security, The University of Texas at El Paso
Chapter Member: Dallas-Fort Worth SSN

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About James

James Lockhart's primary research interests include American foreign relations, security and intelligence studies, and Latin American politics and history. It offers historians, policymakers, and the informed public an alternative way to think about the United States and international affairs and the effectiveness of US strategy and foreign policy, particularly with respect to the workings of Washington's power and influence in the developing world. This departs from the U.S.-centered narratives that have tended to shape and condition the production of historical knowledge, public opinion, and policymaking since the 1970s. Besides appreciated American agency, power, and influence, it recognizes Latin American and Global South agency, power, and influence. Lockhart hopes that this will cultivate more dynamic, interactive, and historically sounder interpretations that will in turn promote more mature and productive relationships between the United States and others in the twenty-first century. Lockhart serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Intelligence History, has published in the International History Review, the Marine Corps University Journal (MCU Journal), and War on the Rocks. He has been consulted on background and/or interviewed by investigative journalists in the US, Brazil, and the Emirates. He is currently researching the career of Lt. Gen. Vernon Walters in Latin America, from the Brazilian coup in 1964 to the Falklands War in 1982.

No Jargon Podcast

In the News

Interviewed in "Chile’s Coup, 50 Years On," (with Kristian Gustafson) The Washington Times: History As It Happens, September 20, 2023.
Interviewed in "American Intelligence on Ukraine," (with Christopher Moran) International Affairs Blog, March 10, 2022.

Publications

"John le Carré’s Southern Turn: British Intelligence and Degenerative Satire in Post-Cold War Latin America and Africa" (with Micah Robbins). Intelligence and National Security 38 (2023): 258-270.

Argues John le Carré’s post-Cold War novels set in Latin America and Africa embrace southern attitudes, discard his earlier ambiguity toward British intelligence, and critique UK foreign relations through the literary strategies of irony and satire. These stories highlight le Carré’s intention to deny legitimacy to British interventions in the Global South.

"Principal Consumer: President Biden’s Approach to Intelligence" (with Christopher Moran). International Affairs 98 (2022): 549-567.

The first assessment of President Joe Biden's approach to intelligence, argues that, against the ever-changing context of international affairs, Biden's approach has remained consistent and stable, showing enthusiasm for the production of national intelligence, and a marked uneasiness about paramilitary covert action and the militarization of intelligence.

"Cuba and the Secret World" The International History Review 43 (November 2019): 170-184.

Discusses the origins and nature of the Castro regime’s security and intelligence services, including the development and prioritization of their missions. Identifies the milestones that defined these services’ institutional history. Then connects this history to post-Cold War US–Cuban relations.