Dr. John D. Maurer is Professor of Strategy and Security Studies at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Maxwell AFB, AL. SAASS is a selective one-year graduate school for strategists with 45 Air Force, Department of Defense, and international students. As a professor, he is responsible for creating warrior-scholars who have a superior ability to develop, evaluate, and employ airpower as a component of military force in support of national objectives.
Dr. Maurer is a historian specializing in the history of American foreign relations and nuclear strategy, especially in the Cold War. He joined the faculty of SAASS in 2020. He teaches courses in the history of air power, military theory, coercion and deterrence, and technology and innovation.
Prior to teaching at SAASS, Dr. Maurer completed his Ph.D. in the history of American foreign relations at Georgetown University. He continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow at International Security Studies (ISS) at Yale University and as a Jeanne Kirkpatrick Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he remains a nonresident fellow.
EDUCATION
2010 Bachelors of Science in International Politics, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
2017 Doctorate of Philosophy in History, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
ASSIGNMENTS OR CAREER CHRONOLOGY
July 2010 – August 2012, Research Assistant, Long Term Strategy Group, Cambridge, MA
August 2012 – July 2017, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
July 2017 – August 2019, Henry Kissinger Postdoctoral Fellow, Johnson Center for the Study of Diplomacy and International Security Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT
August 2019 – July 2020, Jeanne Kirkpatrick Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC
July 2020 – present, Professor of Strategy and Security Studies, School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Maxwell AFB, AL
PUBLICATIONS
“Asymmetric Verification: An Option for Future Arms Limitation,” Orbis, July 2024
“The Challenge of Tripolar Arms Control: Lessons from the Washington Treaty,” War on the Rocks, November 2023
“The Future of Precision-Strike Warfare,” Naval War College Review, March 2023
“Airpower and Interdiction: Overcoming Defender Advantages,” War on the Rocks, September 2022
Competitive Arms Control: Nixon, Kissinger, and SALT, 1969-1972, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2022
“Maintaining America’s Nuclear Deterrent,” War on the Rocks, March 2022
“Arms Control Among Rivals,” Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, February 2021
“The Purposes of Arms Control,” Texas National Security Review, November 2018
“Divided Counsels: Competing Approaches to SALT, 1969-1970,” Diplomatic History, August 2018