About

I am a J.D. candidate at Stanford Law School and a Ph.D. student in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia.

My research interests include international relations theory, grand strategy, U.S. foreign policy, executive power, constitutional law, and national security law.

My academic work has appeared in the Texas National Security Review and in an edited volume published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. My commentary can be found at The National Interest, War on the Rocks, Providence, the Modern War Institute, and elsewhere. I have also written policy papers, both for the Department of Defense and for think tanks.

I earned a bachelor’s of science with honors from the United States Military Academy at West Point. There I studied American politics and systems engineering; spent a semester studying Arabic in Jordan; and served as a research assistant to John J. Mearsheimer. On a Rotary scholarship, I then earned an M.Phil in political thought and intellectual history at the University of Cambridge, graduating with distinction.

Before beginning doctoral work, I served as an active-duty U.S. Army intelligence officer for over six years. I deployed to Afghanistan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, India, and Palau with multinational, special operations, and infantry units. During this time, I liaised with U.S. Senators on Capitol Hill, represented the United Nations Command in negotiations with the North Korean People’s Army, targeted violent extremists in combat, and directed multi-domain reconnaissance missions that drove policy changes in the Department of Defense. I concluded my active-duty career as the senior intelligence officer for a 4,500-soldier infantry brigade.

At Stanford Law School, where I was a Rumsfeld Foundation Graduate Fellow and Jacobson Scholar, I co-founded and co-led the Stanford Law Students for Israel organization and a chapter of the Alexander Hamilton Society. While in law school, I also worked in the criminal justice system in several capacities. I served as an intern in a U.S. Attorney’s Office, as a bar-certified law clerk in a District Attorney’s Office, and as co-president of a pro bono project providing legal assistance to military veterans in the community and in prisons.

Aside from being a student and veteran, I am a former Division-I football player pining for the glory days, a hopeless cook, and a proud dad to a Siberian cat named Phranklin. I am also husband to Macaela Seward Schumacher, a director of marketing at Anheuser-Busch, former commander of a Special Forces detachment, and graduate of the Wharton School of Business. Once upon a time, I moonlighted as a Duffel Blog contributor and appeared in films.