Stephen A. Kelley

Stephen Kelley served 28 years as a U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, strategic planner, and educator. He deployed to the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Persian Gulf, and the Horn of Africa. His stateside assignments include serving as a senior policy advisor, as the director of analysis, and as the chief of staff for the deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development. He also served as a strategic planner in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, where he led an 80-person team through an innovative and comprehensive scenario planning process to assess the future of warfare and the strategic environment that would confront the U.S. Navy 20 years into the future. This resulted in the development of four scenarios set in 2025 and used to inform the Navy’s planning and programming efforts. He also developed programmatic risk guidance to inform how the U.S. Navy allocated a nearly $700 billion five-year budget. Kelley holds a PhD in security studies and an MA in national security affairs (Middle East studies) from the Naval Postgraduate School. He is currently a senior adjunct professorial lecturer at American University. His academic interests focus on high-level policy and strategy development. His dissertation, Getting to War: American Security Policy in the Persian Gulf, 1969–1991, examined the evolution of U.S. security policy in the Persian Gulf during a period of great strategic change. Other areas of interest include naval and military history, the impact of U.S. domestic politics on security policy, political economy, strategic planning, and Persian Gulf politics and security.