Jim Lacey is a retired U.S. Army infantry officer who works as a military analyst for the Institute for Defense Analyses. He is coauthor of The Iraqi Perspectives Report: Saddam's Senior Leadership on Operation Iraqi Freedom from the Official U.S. Joint Forces Command Report, published by the Naval Institute Press in 2006, and editor of the book Fresh from the Fight, a collection of essays on the war in Iraq.

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Lacey worked for Time magazine as an embedded journalist and was with the 101st Airborne Division during the march to Baghdad. He has been published in more than a dozen major magazines and has written numerous articles and editorials on international and military affairs in many of the nation's leading newspapers. He lives in northern Virginia.

Articles by James Lacey

Picking which trouble spot is most likely to provoke another great power conflict is a fool’s errand. History suggests that the spark that ignites war almost always flares far from where major events are expected. On the eve of World War I, for example, few suspected that the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo would ignite a global conflagration.

Where Will the Next War Be Fought?

By Dr. James Lacey
November 2020
Anyone attempting to predict the future is well-advised to first examine the past, for if history is not always a prelude to the future, its parallels often are uncomfortably close.

Adapt or Die

By Jim Lacey and Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Woods, USA (Ret.)
August 2007
Through the ages only the most adaptable species have survived. For its own survival, the U.S. military must embrace adaptability as a guiding principle.

Sense and Nonsense

By Lieutenant Colonel James G. Lacey, U.S. Army Reserve
June 2005
Why is this Iraqi shopkeeper beaming? Isn't Iraq's economy supposed to be struggling? Yes and no, says the author. A lot of half-baked economic schemes are floating around the war-torn ...