2007 Virginia OFA Recipient

Dr. James Hentz is Professor and Chair of the Department of International Studies and Political Science at the Virginia Military Institute, where he has spent the last ten years. He taught at Marist Brothers' High School in American Samoa from 1979-1981, and he taught secondary school at Saint Charles Lwanga Seminary in Zambia from 1987-1989. In 2003, he was a visiting Fulbright Scholar at the Miklós Zrínyi National Defense University in Hungary.

Dr. Hentz's scholarship focuses on African politics and security. He was a visiting scholar at Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1993-1994, at which time he witnessed the transition to democracy in South Africa. He and some friends spent part of the historical election day on April 27, 1994, which marked the formal end of Apartheid, watching the results in the township of Soweto.

Dr. Hentz has contributed numerous articles to journals and edited volumes including: Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, the Journal of Modern African Studies, and Defense and Security Analysis. He is the co-editor of New and Critical Security and Regionalism: Beyond the Nation State (2003), editor of Obligation of Empire: U.S. Grand Strategy for a New Century (2004), and author of South Africa and the Logic of Regional Cooperation (2005). He is editor of the forthcoming journal, African Security, which will be published by Taylor and Francis/Routledge. He is on the editorial board of Academic and Applied Research in Military Science: An International Journal of Security, Strategic, Defense Studies and Military Technology ( Hungary) and Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies ( South Africa).

Dr. Hentz has taught fulltime at the college level at the University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth College. At VMI, he has taught a wide array of courses, but is best known for courses in national security. One cadet commented: "I can speak on behalf of my classmates when I say that we all looked forward most to LTC Hentz's classes. There lectures flowed into debates. Words morphed into ideas. Participation became universal. LTC Hentz transformed the abstract news into a world we grasped. We stopped absorbing information and began comprehending it." Another cadet, recently deployed to the Middle East, stated: "I have found that the lessons he taught have helped me daily as an Infantry Platoon Leader. Today’s Army requires critical thinking about policy implementation and world events. Dr. Hentz’s courses helped me develop a way of thinking that has given me an advantage above my peers."

Dr. Hentz received his B.A. from Saint Joseph's College in Philadelphia in 1978, his M.A. from Georgetown University in 1983, and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996. He is married to Michele Frascati Hentz and has two daughters, Julia, 8, and Kate, 6.

Nomination Package