James Jay Carafano (born May 8, 1955 in New York, New York and raised in East Meadow, New York) is an American scholar on national security and international studies at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC. He is the author of numerous books and papers on national defense, homeland security and immigration, especially as it relates to the national security of the United States.
Carafano has received several degrees in defense related fields. He holds a B.S. in national security and public affairs from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, a M.A. in British and early modern European history from Georgetown University in Washington D.C., a M.A. in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in diplomatic history, also from Georgetown University.
Carafano served 25 years in the Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. During that time he served as head speech writer for the Army Chief of Staff and was the executive director of Joint Force Quarterly, the Defense Department's military journal.
Carafano is a Visiting Professor at the National Defense University and Georgetown and was formerly an Assistant Professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He is a member of the National Academies Board on Army Science and Technology, the Department of the Army Historical Advisory Committee, and is a Senior Fellow at the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute.
Following a stint as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington institute dedicated to defense issues, Carafano in 2003 joined the Heritage Foundation as a Senior Research Fellow. Carafano serves as Assistant Director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies and Senior Research Fellow at the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies.
In 2005, Carafano earned Heritage's Drs. W. Glenn and Rita Ricardo Campbell Award for his "outstanding contribution to the analysis and promotion of the Free Society."
Carafano is a prominanet advocate of recapturing control of the border while restructuring and accentuating the legal immigration process and establishing legal prospects for temporary workers in the United States. Carafano has written, "What is needed to complete the task is not another attempt at 'comprehensive' reform, but a basic commitment to implement and enforce the law, along with a few modest, common-sense legislative initiatives." Carafano is an advocate of the Real ID Act.
Homeland Security
Carafano is the author, with David Heyman, of Homeland Security 3.0: Building a National Enterprise to Keep America Safe, Free, and Prosperous, homeland security experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and The Heritage Foundation (and consisting of representatives from academia, research centers, the private sector, and congressional staffs) compilled this report. Carafano and the task force made 25 recommendations, most notably to treat domestic and international security concerns in a more holistic manner within the National Security Council.
Defense
Carafano is co-author with Paul Rosenzweig of Winning the Long War: Lessons from the Cold War for Defeating Terrorism and Preserving Freedom, published in 2005. The book outlines four winning elements of a national security strategy which balances military and security measures with the protection of civil liberties and promotion of economic growth.
Carafano has also written frequently on the subject of defense spending. His 2008 study Providing for the Common Defense: What 10 Years of Progress Would Look Like, which maps out a blueprint for Congress and the next president over a 10-year period, including setting a floor on the defense budget as four percent of GDP. Carafano writes that, despite "intense military activity since 9/11, defense spending is at a historical low and has been for too long." Carafano argues that increased spending is needed to "prevent a recurrence of the 'hollow force' and to meet the military's immediate modernization needs."
Carafano supports making the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) permanent and the deployment of an adequate missile defense shield.
Carafano is the author of several military history books and studies, which examine how emerging political, social, economic, and cultural trends will affect the nature of conflict. His published works include:
Private Sector, Public Wars: Contractors in Combat...Afghanistan, Iraq, and Future Conflicts (2008)
Mismanaging Mayhem: How Washington Responds to Crisis (2008)
GI Ingenuity: Improvisation, Technology and Winning World War II (2006)
Winning the Long War: Lessons from the Cold War for Defeating Terrorism and Preserving Freedom (2005)
Carafano has testified before the U.S. Congress as an expert of defense, intelligence, and homeland security issues. He has also provided commentary for numerous news and public affairs television and radio programs in the United States, United Kingdom and many other countries. His editorials have appeared in newspapers nationwide including Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, New York Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, and Washington Post and has appeared on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and many others.
