Dr. William James

Dr William James joined the Centre for Grand Strategy as an Ax:son Johnson Research Fellow in August 2022. He is also a Senior Associate of the Oxford Changing Character of War Centre. William holds a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

Between 2018 and 2020, William was based in the United States as a research fellow at MIT’s Security Studies Program and at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. In 2020-21, he was a non-resident Hans J. Morgenthau fellow at the University of Notre Dame.

William’s work has been published in journals such as the European Journal of International Security and International Politics, as well as outlets such as Engelsberg Ideas and War on the Rocks.

One of his goals is to produce academically rigorous research which is accessible and useful for policymakers. He regularly provides support and historically informed analyses to civil servants and the armed forces. William has also contributed evidence to three parliamentary inquiries on British foreign
policy.

In December 2020, William won the Royal United Services Institute’s Trench Gascoigne
essay competition for original writing on defence and security. The essay was subsequently published in the RUSI Journal.