Bio
Dr. Buddhika ‘Jay’ Jayamaha is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Military & Strategic Studies (MSS/DFMI) at the United States Air Force Academy and the Director of Research at the Strategy and Warfare Center. Dr. Jay holds a BA & MA from Marquette University in International Affairs, and a MA and a PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University. He is a veteran of the U.S Army.
Education
PhD., Political Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
MA., Political Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
MA., International Affairs, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
BA., International Affairs, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Professional Experience
Assistant Professor (July 2019 – Present)
- Department of Military & Strategic Studies, U.S. Air Force Academy
Associate Research Scientist (December 2017 – April 2017)
- Department of Agronomy & Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
- College of Agriculture and Life Science
- University of Wisconsin – Madison
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (June 2017 – December 2017)
- Department of Agronomy
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
Project Manager/ Consultant, International Crisis-Mappers (2012-2016)
Airborne Infantryman (2004 -2009)
- United States Army, 82nd Airborne Division, Ft Bragg.
- Operations Noncommissioned Officer in Charge C-1/73 (ABN RECON)
- Team Leader, Reconnaissance, Surveillance, Target Acquisition Team, C-1/73
- Assistant Team Leader, Reconnaissance, Surveillance, Target Acquisition Team, C-1/73
- Fire Team Leader, C-4/40 (Airborne) Cav,
- Direct Fire Rifleman, Grenadier, A Co, 3-505, PIR
Honors & Awards
“Foreign Military Training: Building Effective Host-Nation Armed Forces in Weak States.” Minerva: Defense Education and Civilian University Research (DECUR) Partnership, Topic 3: Alliances and Burden Sharing, with Will Reno (PI), Ryan Burke (Co-PI), Jahara Matisek (Investigator), and Buddhika Jayamaha (Investigator): Project Accepted and Awarded Funding of $400,000, 2020-2021.
Research and Scholarly Interests
Military assistance, Politics in Africa and the Middle East, Insurgency and Counterinsurgency, and Information-Political Warfare.
Publications
BOOKS
Old and New Battlespaces: How Military Power, Society, and Technology Weaponized Everything, with Lt Col Jahara Matisek. Under Contract with Lynne Rienner Publishers, New York, forthcoming 2021.
Nightcap at Dawn: American Soldiers Counterinsurgency in Iraq, under the pseudonym, J.B. Walker, Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2012.
ARTICLES / OP-ED
“Extending the American Century: Revisiting the Social Contract” with Jahara Matisek, Travis Robison. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (2019).
“Crisis Mapping and Crowd Sourcing in Complex Emergencies” with Jen Ziemki and Molly Jahn. Oxford Encyclopedia of Crisis Analysis (forthcoming).
“Smoke and Mirrors in Iran and Saudi Arabia: Domestic Logic of Regional Interventions,” with Kevin Petit, Jahara Matisek, Will Reno and Molly Jahn. Middle East Quarterly (2019).
“Hybrid War in the New Battle-Space of Civil-Society,” with Jahara Matisek. Parameters (2019).
“Climate Change and Civil War Dynamics: Institutions and Conflict in the Sahel,” with Jahara Matisek, Will Reno, Molly Jahn. Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations (2019).
“The Strategic Crisis in the American Way of War: A Global Discount Security Shop?” with Jahara Matisek. The Strategy Bridge (October 2018).
“Inside America’s Post-Cold War Strategic Crisis: How the U.S Military Became a Discount Security Shop,” with Jahara Matisek. Modern War Institute, West Point (October 23, 2018).
“Combat High: America’s Addiction to War,” Contributor to Harpers Forum at West Point, Harper’s Magazine (May 13, 2018).
“Hybrid War: Attacking the ‘Civil’ in Civil Society,” with Jahara Matisek. War Room: U.S. Army War College (April 13, 2018).
“Turkey and the U.S. on the Brink in Syria,” with Jahara Matisek. Columbia SIPA: Journal of International Affairs (February 27, 2018).
“Global Food System Stability and Risk: At the Nexus of Defense and Development,” with Molly Jahn, William S. Mulhern, Dougless E. Ross, Matthew A. Rose, and Gregory F. Treverton. Jahn Research Group, Thompson-Reuters & NASA (April 2018).
“Conflict, Weak Institutions and Food System Fragility in the Sahel”, with Molly Jahn, Toby Lunt, and Will Mulhern. University of Wisconsin-Madison & National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency – CRADA (Cooperative Research & Development Agreement) (December 2017).
“Iraq’s Path to State Failure,” with Kevin Petit and Will Reno. Small Wars Journal (April 22, 2017).
“A Daunting Triangle: Turkey, the Kurds and the ISIL Threat,” Sentinel: Combating Terrorism Center 7, no. 11 (November/December 2014).
“War as We Saw It,” Op-Ed, The New York Times (August 19, 2007) Lead author