James L. Anderson

Special Assistant

Department of Veterans Affairs

  • Press: comms@cnas.org

James L. Anderson is a military officer, researcher, writer, and native of Columbia, SC. He enlisted in the active duty U.S. Air Force after high school serving in maintenance and logistics. Now as a Captain, he is a staff intelligence officer with USAFCENT responsible for airborne ISR, integration of sensor technologies, and collection planning in the U.S. Central Command theater of operations.

Prior to his current assignment, James completed a Fulbright scholarship as a Visiting Fellow in Canadian-American relations at the Centre for International and Defence Policy (CIDP) in Canada. He presented research on how Canada manages its “middle power” role during China’s rise, and he is editing an article called “A Wedged Middle Power” for journal publication. As a writer, his last opinion piece argued for an official U.S. Presidential visit to Canada’s first capital to reaffirm the relationship between Canada and the United States. His work is featured in Global News Canada, National Post, Conversation Canada, and several others. He continues work as an External Fellow with CIDP.

James is also a Fulbright Alumni Ambassador where he plans to create an interagency program that offers active duty junior military officers the opportunity to pursue Fulbright scholarships. He has held past fellowships with Truman National Security Project and Veterans in Global Leadership. He completed M.A. degrees at Queen’s University (Canada) and American University, in addition to, a B.A. degree cum laude from theUniversity of South Carolina.

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