James Carafano

James Jay Carafano is Senior Counselor to the President and E.W. Richardson Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

Carafano, a 25-year Army veteran with a master’s and doctorate from Georgetown University, joined Heritage in 2003 as a senior research fellow in homeland security and missile defense. Carafano now directs Heritage's team of foreign and defense policy experts in five centers on the front lines of international affairs: the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, the Asian Studies Center, the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, the Border Security and Immigration Center, and the Center for National Defense. 

A leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges, Carafano previously served as the Vice President of Heritage’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy. Carafano is an accomplished historian and teacher as well as a prolific writer and researcher.