DR. JAMES KIRAS Published July 23, 2025 Male Silhouette - photo not available Photo Details / Download Hi-Res Dr. James D. Kiras is Dean of Academics and Professor of Strategy and Security Studies at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS), Air University (AU), Maxwell Air Force Base (AFB), Alabama. SAASS is a selective one-year graduate school for strategists with 16 terminally credentialed faculty and 45 Air Force, Department of Defense, and international students. As part of the faculty, 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. Kiras currently serves as the Director of the SAASS Military Theory course. His areas of expertise include strategy, security studies, irregular warfare, special operations, counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and military theory. Dr. Kiras’s publications include two books (Special Operations Success and Special Operations and Strategy), a dozen co-authored or co-edited volumes, and more than two dozen articles and book chapters. Dr. Kiras’s most recent work includes a general theory of special operations (Special Operations Success) and another exploring the transformation and evolution of special operations forces in new and uncontested domains (Into the Void). He frequently consults with and provides subject matter expertise to various special operations major and component headquarters. Dr. Kiras holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Reading (UK) as well as a MA in History/International Relations from University of Toronto and a BA (Hons) in History from the University of Massachusetts at Boston. SAASS Faculty SAASS Faculty: /saass/faculty