Faculty Spotlight

Dr. Celestino Perez
Chair of Executive and Strategic Leadership

Dr. Celestino Perez serves as the Chair of Executive and Strategic Leadership at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, PA.  He also directs the Carlisle Scholars Program, for which he designs and teaches a seminar of select national-security professionals in political science, strategy, war, and military ethics.  Finally, he serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.  His research interests include political judgment, strategy, military ethics, and the relationship between the American military and democracy.  He is especially interested in “bridging the gap” between the illuminating work that political scientists do and the real-world challenges that political and military actors confront.

Perez hold 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 Perspectives on Politics, Peace Review, Armed Forces & Society, and the Journal of Military Ethics. His public and professional essays have appeared in Joint Forces Quarterly, Military Review, War on the Rocks, 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 31^st, 2021, Dr. Perez retired as a colonel after 30 years of service in the U.S. Army.