Sara Bush Castro is an Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where she has taught since 2019. She teaches courses on global and military history, national security history, East Asia, and China. She is also the President of the Society for Intelligence History, and she serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. Castro was named a China Fellow at the Wilson Center in 2020. From 2016 to 2019, Castro served as the Associate Director of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies (TISS) ICCAE program and as a teaching assistant professor in the Curriculum on Peace, War, and Defense at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill specializing in global security and intelligence history. She earned a doctorate in history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2016, a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 2004, and undergraduate degrees from Arizona State University’s Honors College in 2000. Before becoming a professor, Castro worked as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. government.

Castro’s research focuses on the history of the Chinese Communist Party and the history of U.S.-China relations, especially through a lens of national security and intelligence. She wrote Mission to Mao: US Intelligence and the Chinese Communists in World War II, (Georgetown University Press, 2024), and she is a co-editor with Jadwiga Biskupska of Shots in the Dark: Experimentation, Success, and Failure in the Second World War (Fordham University Press, forthcoming in 2025). She has published in various journals, including The Journal of Military History, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, and The Journal of Chinese Military History.

Ph.D., History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (2016)

Master of Arts, Law and Diplomacy, The Fletcher School, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts (2004)

Bachelor of Arts, History, and Bachelor of Arts Religious Studies (Minor in Chinese, Summa Cum Laude), Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona (2000)

Associate Professor, Department of History, U.S. Air Force Academy (2024 to present)

Assistant Professor, Department of History, U.S. Air Force Academy (2019-2023)

Teaching Assistant Professor, Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (2016-2019)

Assistant Director, Triangle Institute of Security Studies Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (2016-2019)

Intelligence Analyst, United States Government, Washington, D.C. (2003-2009)

Program Assistant, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, New York City, New York (2001-2002)

USAFA Outstanding Academy Educator, Department of History, 2023

USAFA Center for Educational Innovation Innovative Teacher Award, 2021-2022

Wilson Center China Fellow, 2020-2021

Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship in Chinese, 2011-2012

Phillips Ambassador Graduate Fellowship, 2011

Boren Scholarship, China, 1997-1998

East Asia

China

U.S.-China relations

National security and intelligence history

Global military history