Col. Spencer Bakich is a professor of international studies and the Director of the National Security Program at VMI, and a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Specializing in strategic studies and American foreign policy, Col. Bakich teaches courses on U.S. national security policy, U.S.-China relations, and military strategy.聽
Col. Bakich is the author of聽The Gulf War: George H. W. Bush and American Grand Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era聽(Kansas, 2024),听Success and Failure in Limited War: Information and Strategy in the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and Iraq Wars聽(Chicago, 2014), and is co-editor of聽Sources of Great Power Competition: Rising Powers, Grand Strategy, and System Dynamics聽(Routledge, 2025). Col. Bakich’s commentary has been featured in聽The National Interest,听USA Today,听The Washington Post, and聽The Strategy Bridge.
Col. Bakich has participated in governmental and professional workshops and projects, the sponsors of which include the National Intelligence Council, United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, the Project on Civilian-Military Educational Cooperation, and the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum. As a Senior Fellow in Presidential Studies at the Miller Center, Col. Bakich has interviewed numerous senior policymakers, military officers, and Foreign Service officers who served in the George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama administrations.
A recipient of the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) Outstanding Faculty Award and VMI鈥檚 Distinguished Teaching Award, Col. Bakich earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Politics at the University of Virginia, and his B.A. magna cum laude from James Madison University.