Celestino Perez

Focus Areas: Political Theory, Political Judgement, Military Ethics, Strategy

Celestino Perez is an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.  He also serves as an associate professor and the Chair of Executive and Strategic Leadership at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, PA, where he directs the Carlisle Scholars Program.  The program educates and trains sixteen select national-security professionals to learn and apply cutting-edge scholarship on policy, war, and military ethics to policy and strategy formulation.  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 political science and the real-world challenges that political and military actors confront. 

Perez holds 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 the Journal of Military Ethics, Peace Review, Armed Forces & Society, and Perspectives on Politics.  His public and professional essays have appeared in Joint Forces Quarterly, Military Review, War on the Rocks, Political Violence @ a Glance, 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 31st, 2021, Perez retired as a colonel after 30 years of service in the U.S. Army.  He served as an armor officer and strategist with key assignments as a task force commander in Iraq, a speechwriter and strategic advisor in Afghanistan, and as the Director of Plans at U.S. Army North in San Antonio, TX.  His previous teaching assignments include service at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in the Department of Social Sciences and at the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College as Director of the Local Dynamics of War Scholars Program.

Education

• Ph.D. in Political Science, Indiana University - Bloomington