James G. Stavridis

Stavridis was born in West Palm Beach, Florida,[24] son of Shirley Anne (Schaffer) and Paul George Stavridis.[25][26][27] His father was a United States Marine Corps colonel who served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.[28] Stavridis is married to Laura Hall, author of Navy Spouses Guide.[29] His paternal grandparents were Anatolian Greeks, born and raised in Western Anatolia, who emigrated to the United States.[30] His mother's family was Pennsylvania Dutch (German).[31]

In his 2008 book, Destroyer Captain: Lessons of a First Command, Stavridis wrote:

In the early 1920s, my grandfather, a short, stocky Greek schoolteacher named Dimitrios Stavridis, was expelled from Turkey as part of 'ethnic cleansing' (read pogrom) directed against Greeks living in the remains of the Ottoman Empire. He barely escaped with his life in a small boat crossing the Aegean Sea to Athens and thence to Ellis Island. His brother was not so lucky and was killed by the Turks as part of the violence directed at the Greek minority.

A NATO exercise off the coast of modern Turkey was the "most amazing historical irony [he] could imagine," and prompted Stavridis to write of his grandfather: "His grandson, who speaks barely a few words of Greek, returns in command of a billion-dollar destroyer to the very city—Smyrna, now called İzmir—from which he sailed in a refugee craft all those years ago."[32]

ADM James G. Stavridis, former Commander, EUCOM, and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, in 2014

Stavridis is a 1976 distinguished graduate of the United States Naval Academy. He is a career surface warfare officer and served at sea in aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers. After serving with distinction as Operations Officer on the newly commissioned USS Valley Forge, Stavridis commanded destroyer USS Barry from 1993 to 1995, completing deployments to Haiti, Bosnia, and the Persian Gulf. Barry won the Battenberg Cup as the top ship in the Atlantic Fleet under his command. In 1996–1997, he attended MIT Seminar XXI.[33] In 1998, he commanded Destroyer Squadron 21 and deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1998, winning the Navy League's John Paul Jones Award for Inspirational Leadership.

From 2002 to 2004, Stavridis commanded Enterprise Carrier Strike Group, conducting combat operations in the Persian Gulf in support of both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Afterwards, as a vice admiral, Stavridis served as senior military assistant to the United States Secretary of Defense. On October 19, 2006, he became the first Navy officer to command the United States Southern Command in Miami, Florida. In July 2009, he became the 16th Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).[34] He retired as SACEUR in 2013.

Ashore, Stavridis served as a strategic and long range planner on the staffs of the Chief of Naval Operations and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At the start of the "Global War on Terror", he was selected as the director of the Navy Operations Group, Deep Blue, USA. He has also served as the executive assistant to the Secretary of the Navy and the senior military assistant to the United States Secretary of Defense. He was promoted directly from 1-star rank to 3-star rank in 2004.[35]

Stavridis has long advocated the use of "smart power," which he defines as the balance of hard and soft power taken together. In numerous articles[36] and speeches, he has advocated creating security in the 21st century by building bridges, not walls. Stavridis has stressed the need to connect international, inter-agency, and public-private actors to build security, lining all of them with effective strategic communications. His message was articulated in his book "Partnership for the Americas", which was published by the NDU Press and was based on his time as Commander of the U.S. Southern Command from 2006–2009. The book was summarized in his 2012 Ted Global talk in Scotland, which has been viewed more than 700,000 times online.

Based on an anonymous complaint, in early 2011 the Department of Defense Inspector General began investigating allegations that Stavridis "engaged in misconduct relating to official and unofficial travel and other matters." He was subsequently the subject of a May 3, 2012, report by the Inspector General,[37] and was later absolved of wrongdoing by the Secretary of the Navy on September 11, 2012. In a Memorandum for the Record,[38] Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus wrote that Stavridis "has consistently demonstrated himself to be a model naval officer and a devoted public servant whose motivation is to do that which is necessary and appropriate to advance the interests of the United States." Mabus concluded that "I have determined that ADM Stavridis never attempted to use his public office for private gain nor did he commit personal misconduct."[39]

Stavridis earned a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy in 1983, and a PhD in International Relations in 1984, from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he won the Gullion Prize as outstanding student. Stavridis is also 1992 distinguished graduate of the United States National War College.

Stavridis was appointed dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University on July 1, 2013.

As dean, Stavridis initiated a strategic planning process, invited several high level speakers to the campus, and is focusing thematically on the Arctic, the role of women in international relations, synthetic biology and its impact on foreign affairs, cyber, and the role of online media and social networks in public diplomacy.[40]

Admiral Stavridis in the remote studio at The Fletcher School in 2016

Since leaving active duty, Stavridis has frequently appeared on major broadcast and cable television networks to comment on national security and foreign policy matters. He has frequently appeared on news networks like CNN,[41] Fox News,[42] BBC[43] and Bloomberg,[44] and chief international diplomacy and national security analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist [45] and has written hundreds of articles in many diverse publications including Time,[46] Nikkei Asian Review,[47] Foreign Policy,[48] Huffington World Post, and Proceedings, the magazine of the U.S. Naval Institute. Many of his media appearances and writings are linked from the news page of his website.

Tufts University had a remote television studio installed[49] on the campus of The Fletcher School so that Stavridis and other faculty and administrators could easily make themselves available to the international media. In August 2016 NBC News named Stavridis as their "chief international security and diplomacy analyst.[50]" Also in August 2016, according to Stavridis' official Twitter account,[51] he began a monthly column for Time.com.[52] The first column was about a "grand bargain" with Russia.[53]

Stavridis has also been a public speaker – among his many appearances are multiple appearances at the World Economic Forum[54] in Davos, Switzerland, the Munich Security Conference[55] in 2013, and lectures at Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, The University of Texas at Arlington, and many other universities. He has delivered the "Forrestal Lecture,"[56] a major address to the brigade of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy on four occasions.[57]

In July 2022 he was writer-in-residence at Hemingway House in Ketchum, Idaho [58] and was a featured speaker at the Sun Valley Writer's Conference in 2022 [59] and 2021.[60]

In November 2022 he was sanctioned by the Kremlin for his outspoken criticism of the Putin regime.[61]

Stavridis is on the board of several corporations and charitable organizations. In May 2021 he was named [6] Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation on which he had served since 2017.[62] In 2021, Stavridis joined the national security advisory board of venture capital firm Shield Capital, as a senior advisor.[63] the other boards he serves on are PreVeil, a cybersecurity company that provides an encrypted email and file sharing platform focused on helping defense suppliers handle sensitive data in compliance with government regulations, as well as for commercial businesses and individual use, American Water Works,[64] a water and wastewater utility company, Michael Baker International,[65] an engineering, planning and consulting company, the Neuberger Berman Funds, and the Onassis Foundation.[66] Stavridis is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations[67] and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Stavridis has given numerous commencement and graduation addresses around the country at universities such as the United States Merchant Marine Academy in 2008,[68][69] the University of Miami in 2011,[70] Dickinson College in 2017,[71] and California State Maritime[72] Norwich University[73] in 2018, Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2019, and Sewanee, The University of the South, in 2021,[74] and The Citadel in 2022.[75] He received an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from Tufts University in 2022.[76]

On July 12, 2016, The New York Times and other media organizations reported that Stavridis was being vetted by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign as a possible vice presidential running mate on the Democratic ticket.[77] The Washington Post summarized Stavridis' qualifications in a short video.[78] Publications like the Navy Times cited his NATO leadership as pluses.[79] An article in Politico called him "Hillary's Anti-Trump." Stavridis was quoted in that article as joking, "My name is too long for a bumper sticker."[80] Eventually, Clinton selected Tim Kaine.[81]

On December 8, 2016, Stavridis went to Trump Tower in New York City to meet with president-elect Donald Trump. Following the meeting, Stavridis told reporters that they had discussed world events, cybersecurity and other matters.[82] Press accounts suggested he was under consideration for secretary of state or director of national intelligence.[83] On December 14, 2016, however, in an interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Stavridis said that he would not be taking a position in the Trump administration.[84]

• To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision, Penguin Press, 2022, ISBN 978-0593297742
• The Sailor's Bookshelf: Fifty Books to Know the Sea, U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2021 ISBN 978-1682476987
• With Elliot Ackerman 2034: A Novel of the Next World War. Penguin Press, 2021. ISBN 1984881256
• Sailing True North: Ten Admirals and the Voyage of Character, Penguin Press, October 15, 2019, ISBN 978-0525559931
• Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World's Oceans, Penguin Press, June 6, 2017, ISBN 978-0-7352-2059-1
• The Leader's Bookshelf, U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2017, ISBN 978-1-68247-179-1
• The Accidental Admiral: A Sailor Takes Command at NATO, U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2014 ISBN 978-1-61251-704-9
• Partnership for the Americas: Western Hemisphere Strategy and U.S. Southern Command, NDU Press, November 2010 ISBN 978-0-16-087042-2
• Command At Sea, sixth edition, Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, coauthored with Rear Admiral Robert Girrier, USN, 2010 ISBN 9781591147985
• Destroyer Captain: Lessons of a First Command, U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2007 ISBN 9781591148494
• Watch Officer's Guide, Twelfth Edition, Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, Co-authored with Captain Robert Girrier, 2006 ISBN 9781591149361
• Division Officer's Guide, Eleventh Edition, Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, Co-authored with Commander Robert Girrier, 2005 ISBN 9781591147992

In 2020, character traits developed by Stavridis were used as the basis for a business fable by Amy S. Hamilton, called the Consummate Communicator: Character Traits of True Professionals, which provides a guide for how to interact in the workplace. In it, Jay Admiral, a character based on Stavridis, shares fundamental behaviors that improve working environments. Stavridis wrote the foreword for the book.[119] In October 2023. Stavridis posted on X a brief clip from the Showtime drama "Billions" in which the character played by Damian Lewis asks another character, played by Corey Stoll, if he has been "reading your Stavridis."

Wikimedia Commons has media related to James G. Stavridis.

• Personal website
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• An extensive and relevant analysis of the role played by Stavridis in the Mediterranean and in the militarization of the so-called "migrant crisis" in the documentary review OJALA/SanchoPanzaLab n.6 (Paris, January 2017) (in Spanish)* U.S. Smart Power: Interview with Adm. Stavridis. Bjoern H. Seibert, Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Summer 2008 Vol 32:2.
• Interview with Adm. Stavridis. Col David H. Gurney, USMC, Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 50, 3d Quarter 2008

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Navy.