Editorial Advisory Panel

Benjamin “BJ” Armstrong

Benjamin “BJ” Armstrong

Benjamin “BJ” Armstrong is a Captain in the U.S. Navy and Associate Professor of War Studies and Naval History at the U.S. Naval Academy.  Prior to joining the faculty in Annapolis he served for nearly two decades as a search and rescue helicopter pilot in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Fleets of the U.S. Navy and in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy.  He earned his PhD in War Studies with King’s College London, and is the author or editor of seven books on maritime history, strategy, and naval professionalism.  At the Naval Academy he founded the Forum on Integrated Naval History and Seapower Studies (FINHSS) and has served as Director of the McMullen Naval History Symposium, Admiral Jay Johnson Professor of Leadership & Ethics, Associate Chair of the History Department, Deputy to the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Director of the Naval Academy Museum.  He served on the Council of the North American Society for Oceanic History, the Editorial Board of the U.S. Naval Institute, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and as an Associate of King’s College.

He serves on the Military Strategy Magazine editorial panel in his personal and academic capacity and this does not reflect endorsement by the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Navy, or any government agency.


Publications

Selected Books & Monographs

 

Naval Presence and the Interwar U.S. Navy and Marine Corps: Forward Deployment, Crisis Response, and the Tyranny of History (London: Routledge, 2023).

21st Century Mahan: Sound Military Conclusions for the Modern Era, Revised and Expanded, 2nd Edition (Annapolis, Naval Institute Press, 2023).

Developing the Naval Mind, co-authored with John Freymann (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2021).

Small Boats and Daring Men: Maritime Raiding, Irregular Warfare, and the Early American Navy (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019).

 

Selected Strategic Studies Articles

 

"Integrating Maritime Statecraft and Strategy," War on the Rocks (July, 2024).

 

"Old Lessons for a New Maritime Statecraft," War on the Rocks (October, 2023).

 

“Mahan Versus Corbett in Width, Depth, and Context” Military Strategy Magazine Vol. 7, No. 4 (January, 2022).

 

“American Naval Dominance is Not a Birthright,” U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings, Vol. 147, No. 9 (November, 2021).

 

“‘Things Done By Halves’: Observations from the United States’ First Great Power Competition,” The Naval War College Review 73, No. 4 (Autumn 2020).

 

“D-All of the Above: Connecting 21st Century Naval Doctrine to Strategy,” Infinity Journal, Vol. 4, No. 4 (Summer 2015).

 

“Living in a Mahanian World,” Infinity Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Summer 2012).