James Kurth is the Claude Smith Professor of Political Science at Swarthmore College, where he teaches defense policy, foreign policy, and international politics. He received his A.B. in History from Stanford University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University, where he was an assistant and associate professor of government.  He has been a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, NJ), visiting professor of political science at the University of California at San Diego, and visiting professor of strategy at the U.S. Naval War College. 

He has authored over 100 professional articles and edited two professional volumes in the fields of defense policy, foreign policy, international politics, and European politics. He is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (Philadelphia), where he serves as Editor of its journal, Orbis. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.