S1E7 Jacqueline Whitt - US Army War College

Today we chat with Dr. Jacqueline Whitt. Jackie is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Chair of National Security Studies and Associate Professor of Strategy at the US Army War College. She is also the editor-in-chief of WAR ROOM, the online journal and podcast of the Army War College. Currently, she is detailed as the Acting Deputy Director and Senior Advisor for the Organizational Learning Unit in the Office of Policy, Planning, and Resources for the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the Department of State. There, she is leading the writing and publication of the first-ever doctrine for public diplomacy and helping to stand up a new unit to support learning for organizations and individuals for public diplomacy to remain relevant and adaptable in a complex and changing information environment. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She writes about strategic theory, grand strategy, and narrative and also about the social and cultural history of the US military and, especially, the history of integrating minoritized communities into the armed forces. She has published books, articles, and chapters on a variety of topics. Her books include Bringing God to Men: American Military Chaplains and the Vietnam War (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), which won the Coffman Prize from the Society for Military History for best first manuscript and the Richard W. Leopold Prize from the Organization of American Historians, for the best book on foreign policy, military affairs, historical activities of the federal government, documentary histories, or biography written by a U.S. government historian or federal contract historian. With Kyle Longley, Jackie also published Grunts: The American Combat Soldier in Vietnam (2nd edition, Routledge, 2020). Her current research includes a book project titled “War Stories: Narrative and American Strategy since 1945,” which is under review by the University of North Carolina Press, and a book chapter titled “Managing Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression” in Managing Sex: The Intersection of History and Policy in the US Military, edited by Kara Dixon Vuic and Beth Bailey (forthcoming with University of Nebraska Press, May 2022).

Before coming to Carlisle Barracks, Jackie taught at the Air War College and the US Military Academy at West Point. She is active in the Society for Military History, Model UN, and several other organizations, has been recognized for teaching excellence at the Army War College, Air War College, and West Point, and serves on the editorial board of Modern War Studies for the University Press of Kansas. She is a compulsive blogger, Tweeter, and overall social media junkie, and contributes to discussions on everything from grand strategy to LBGTQ+ issues in the military at every opportunity.

She is a lowly staff officer to the Joint Chiefs of Cats - General Sherman and Admiral Farragut - at Joint Base Whitt in Carlisle, PA, and Tweets as @notabattlechick (follow her!)

Rec. 12/02/2021