Dr. Jeffrey Race

In 1965 Jeffrey Race was the most junior second lieutenant in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge, then in the ‘70s and ‘80s served on high-level U.S. Army and Defense Department staffs, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.  Later he worked as a university professor and consultant to government, industry and international organizations.  His teaching and research have focussed on political economy, the link between technology and political and social change, pathologies of policy-making, and human and institutional conflict.  He has published extensively on these subjects in the press and in academic journals. In 2004 he testified at the Washington Free Trade Agreement hearings on the rule of law in Thailand. Race’s 1972 book War Comes to Long An, recently republished in an expanded edition after 40 years in print, is considered the canonical analysis of why the U.S. effort in Vietnam turned out so badly.  On the Army Chief of Staff’s reading list, its insights into human behavior have inspired diverse work by many others, including two books, Anatomy of Victory by John D. Caldwell (comparative examination of four successful and failed American wars) and War Comes to Garmser by Carter Malkasian (an Afghanistan province study).  His work has changed history. Race is often invited to lecture on his research, writings and out-of-the-ordinary personal experiences.  Amazon’s suggested reading list places him among the top ten military thinkers of all time, along with Sun Tzu, Thucydides and Mao Tse-tung. Race is a Life Senior Member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and founded a high-tech firm in the telecommunications field to manufacture  electronic products he designs. He grew up in New England, was educated at Harvard University and then lived in Asia for 45 years.  In 2012 he returned to Harvard to begin a project on pathologies of public decision-making, of the kind leading to the Vietnam War outcome and to more recent catastrophes in the areas of American national security and economic policy. Aside from his professional work Race is a student of many languages, volunteers in several educational and spiritual activities in Asia and in the U.S., and is keen on physical fitness.  He became an avid marathon runner at the age of 67. View both his professional work and personal projects at <http://www.jeffreyrace.com>.