JAY M. PARKER, Ph.D.
CSP Senior Fellow
Visiting Associate Professor, Georgetown University, and Former CSP Executive Vice-President
Dr. Jay M. Parker, a Visiting Associate Professor in Georgetown University's Department of Government, was named Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency in December 2006. Prior to his appointment as Senior Fellow, Dr. Parker served as the Center's Executive Vice President and was responsible for implementing the Center's strategic vision, and conducting other key tasks to include managing a wide range of policy studies in the area of foreign policy and defense and overseeing the Center's National Consortium for Character-Based Leadership. Dr. Parker concurrently served as Acting Dean of Fellows for 2006. Most recently, Dr. Parker served as an Advisor and the Center's Liaison to the Iraq Study Group (also known as the Baker-Hamilton Commission).
Dr. Parker joined the Center after 26 years of service as a United States Army Officer, retiring from Active Duty in the rank of Colonel. In his last assignment, he served for more than a decade as Professor of Political and International Affairs and Director of International Relations and National Security Studies, Department of Social Sciences, United States Military Academy at West Point. As such, he was responsible for managing all aspects of one of the Academy's largest academic majors. He chaired the Academy's Scholarship Committee, directing the selection and preparation of candidates for post-graduate programs to include the Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Fulbright, and Gates Scholarships and the East-West Center Fellowship. In addition to his academic leadership responsibilities, he provided analytical support on national security issues to Department of the Army. Dr. Parker's teaching and research areas include American Foreign Policy, International Relations, Security Studies, Mass Media, Politics and Film, and American Politics. He is the author or editor of numerous publications, to include Understanding International Relations: The Value of Alternative Lenses.
Dr. Parker is a graduate of the University of Arizona. He earned masters' degrees in political communication and public affairs from Arizona State University, an M.A. in international relations from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. in international relations from Columbia University. He is a graduate of the Naval War College, and was a Visiting Research Fellow at Princeton University's Center of International Studies, and a Japan Society US-Japan Leader Fellow.
A member of the advisory committees for the Museum of Television and Radio Satellite Seminar Series - "Learning From The Last War: The Media and The Military" and "9/11: The Media Responds," Dr. Parker appeared in the Stephen Ives Emmy-nominated PBS documentary Reporting America at War. He is former chair of the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association and is on the Governing Councils of the Foreign Policy and the International Security and Arms Control Sections of the American Political Science Association. Dr. Parker has been an Adjunct Associate Professor in the graduate school faculties at Columbia University and George Washington University. He has lectured at Princeton University, Saint Louis University, the U.S. Army War College, Chatham House (London), Rutgers University, the University of Delaware, and Osaka University (Japan).
Dr. Parker's military service included infantry and special operations command and staff assignments in operational and training units. His previous civilian experience includes service as a congressional aide and as a political campaign consultant. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Board of Directors for CIVIC--Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflicts Worldwide. Born in Washington, D.C.-where his family roots go back almost 400 years-he has lived and traveled extensively in Asia and Europe. He and his wife, Ila Corinne Bridges (a retired Colonel in the United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps), have two children; Kirsten is a political risk analyst, and Jeb is a musician.
