Professor Geoffrey Jensen holds the John Biggs 鈥�30 Cincinnati Chair in Military History at VMI, where he has taught since 2004. He specializes in European warfare, modern Spanish history, and Spain鈥檚 wars in North Africa. Before coming to VMI, he received a B.A from Indiana University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He has taught at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the University of Southern Mississippi, Yale University, UCLA, and as an adjunct online instructor for graduate courses at the U.S. Air Command and Staff College and Norwich University.
His first book, Irrational Triumph: Cultural Despair, Military Nationalism, and the Ideological Origins of Franco鈥檚 Spain, explores how military figures turned to philosophical and cultural ideas about leadership, nationalism, and military intervention abroad, with significant consequences for Spain and other countries. He expanded on these themes in Cultura militar espa帽ola: modernistas, tradicionalistas y liberales. His publications also include a biography of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, two edited books, and over two dozen scholarly articles and book chapters. In addition, he has published on US policy in West Central Africa during the Cold War. He is currently working on a new book with the tentative title Spanish Ways of War and Occupation: Colonial Violence, the Rif War, and Hispano-Muslim Identities in Modern Morocco.
At VMI, Jensen teaches courses on military history, the history of Spain, and Europe between the two world wars. He regularly supervises cadet honors theses, serves on numerous other honors thesis committees, and leads independent directed studies.