About the Author

Amit Gupta is an Associate Professor in the USAF Air War College, Alabama. His writings have focused on arms production and weapons proliferation, South Asian and Australian security policies, Diaspora politics, as well as popular culture and politics. More recently he has written on the US-China rivalry and the impact of demography on US foreign policy. His articles have appeared in Orbis, Asian Survey, Security Dialogue, The Round Table, Mediterranean Quarterly, The International Journal of the History of Sport, and Sport in Society.  He is also the author or editor of seven books.

Sharad Joshi is an associate professor in the Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies Program (NPTS) in the Graduate School of International Policy and Management (GSIPM), at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterey. Dr Joshi’s research and teaching focuses on various facets of conflict, terrorism, and nonproliferation matters in South Asia. Dr Joshi holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and also served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Middlebury Institute’s Center for Nonproliferation Studies. He has also been associated with the institute’s Monterey Terrorism Research and Education Program (MonTREP) as a research associate, and interim director. He is also affiliated with Chatham House (UK) as an associate fellow of international security.

Gregory Alegi is a historian and journalist, with 35 years of experience in the aerospace, defense and security fields. He teaches Aerospace History at the Italian Air Force Academy (since 1998) and History of the Americas at LUISS University in Rome (since 2006). His extensive Italian and English writing includes La storia dell’Aeronautica Militare: la nascita (The History of the Italian Air Force: The Birth), winner of the ITAF Association Aerospace Book Prize in 2016. In 2015 he authored “The Italian Experience: Pivotal and Underestimated,” a chapter in Karl Muller’s Precision and Purpose: Airpower in the Libyan Civil War. He sits on the Board of Advisors of the Fondazione ICSA, for which he has authored research papers on the Italian defence budget and the F-35 programme. As a journalist, he is the managing editor of the monthly Aeronautica and sits on the strategic committee of Airpress and the editorial board of The Aviation Historian.

Peter Gray retired from the Royal Air Force in June 2008, having reached the rank of Air Commodore (1*), he took up the position of Senior Research Fellow in Air Power Studies at the University of Birmingham in 2008. He retired from Birmingham in 2018 and is now Honorary Professor of Air Power Studies at the University of Wolverhampton. Gray spent his early career as a navigator on the F4 Phantom aircraft and, more recently, commanded 101 Squadron flying VC10 K tanker aircraft.  He has spent two staff tours in the personnel field followed by a lengthy sojourn in the Cabinet Office, several appointments in the Ministry of Defence and has served as Director of Defence Studies for the Royal Air Force.  Gray is a graduate of the Higher Command and Staff Course and was assistant director on the 2001 programme. Gray holds degrees from the Universities of Dundee, London, Cambridge and Birmingham (PhD).  He is a Fellow of the RAeS and the Royal Historical Society. 

Ron Gurantz is assistant professor in the Department of Strategy at the Air War College. He joined the Air War College faculty in 2016, having previously taught political science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds a PhD and MA in Political Science from UCLA, and a BA in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley. His areas of specialization include crisis decision-making, deterrence, and air power. He is currently researching US air power in the Vietnam War, with a focus on threat credibility and military effectiveness. His previous research has examined the credibility of deterrent threats and the influence of domestic politics on the course of international crises.

Shang-su Wu is a research fellow in the Regional Security Architecture Programme of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Before joining the RSIS, he taught in the National Defense University in Taiwan. He is the author of The Defence Capabilities of Small States: Singapore and Taiwan’s Responses to Strategic Desperation.  His research interests are military modernisation, Taiwan issues, railway and international relations. His articles have been published in the Naval War College Review, Defence Studies, the Pacific Review, Asian Survey, Contemporary Southeast Asia, among others.

Xiaoming Zhang is professor in the Department of Strategy at the Air War College, teaching strategy, and subjects on China and East Asia.  He is the author of books, Red Wings over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union and the Air War in Korea(2002), and Deng Xiaoping’s Long War: The Military Conflict between China and Vietnam, 1979-1991(2015).

Lars Peder Haga studied Russian at the Norwegian Defence Intelligence College and the University of Bergen, and holds a PhD in modern history from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.  Since 2011, he has been at the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy, as associate professor he teaches modern history, international relations and air power.  His research interests include the development of Russian Air Power and Russian Air Operations.  He is one of the two main authors of the new Norwegian air operations doctrine.

Luís E. P. Celles Cordeiro is a graduate from the Brazilian Air Force Academy—class of 1999.  Currently he is the chief of the training division at the Brazil Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA).  Before assuming this position, he was an Academic Coordinator of two disciplines (Military use of force and International Humanitarian Law) at the Squadron Officer College (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) for four years and instructor of Air Force Basic Doctrine, Law of Armed Conflict and Joint Operations.  Lt. Col. Celles has an M.Sc. (Political Science and International Relations) from the Brazilian Air University, also located in Rio de Janeiro.  He is an active member of the Brazilian National Defense Studies Association and the Brazilian International Relations Association, participating in seminars and discussing the content of several articles (in Portuguese, English and Spanish) which he has published.  Areas of interest: Cyber Warfare, Joint Operations, International Law of Armed Conflict, Airpower Doctrine, Flight Safety and Logistics.


 

Donovan Chau is Director of Research Engagement in the Division of Research and Strategic Innovation at the University of West Florida. He works to connect students and faculty with industry and government—contributing directly to the needs of professions and society. Previously, Dr Chau was associate professor of political science (tenured) at California State University, San Bernardino. Before academia, Dr Chau worked in Washington, DC, first in the US House of Representatives, then as a government contractor in homeland security and counterterrorism. He is a member of the US Air Force Reserve. Dr Chau earned a BA in literature/government from Claremont McKenna College, an MS in defense and strategic studies, and a PhD in politics and international relations from the University of Reading (UK).


 

Guillaume de Syon teaches Modern European history and the history of technology at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvnia. He is also a visiting scholar in History at Franklin & Marshall College. Professor de Syon is the author of Zeppelin! Germany and the Airship 1900-1939, and Science & Technology in Modern European Life and of numerous articles and chapters on the history of technology and aviation.

Pete Wooding has served with the Royal Australian Air Force since 2000 having previously served with the Royal New Zealand Air Force. He has undertaken appointments in aeroengineering, operations support, and attaché positions, as well as having deployed to Afghanistan and commanded 460 Squadron, RAAF. His educational background includes post-graduate study at the Australian Defence Force Academy, RAF College Cranwell, Royal Military College Canada, and the US Air War College. WGCDR Wooding holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree and Master degrees in Science, Defence Studies and Strategic Studies. He was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1997. He is currently a member of the teaching staff at the Australian Command and Staff College (Joint) in Canberra.

Adhi Priamarizki is a Visiting Fellow at the Indonesia Programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore. His primary research interests are civil-military relations in Southeast Asia, Indonesia's defense policy, and Indonesian politics. He holds a doctoral degree in International Relations from Ritsumeikan University.

Amit Gupta is an Associate Professor in the USAF Air War College, Alabama. His writings have focused on arms production and weapons proliferation, South Asian and Australian security policies, Diaspora politics, as well as popular culture and politics. More recently he has written on the US-China rivalry and the impact of demography on US foreign policy. His articles have appeared in Orbis, Asian Survey, Security Dialogue, The Round Table, Mediterranean Quarterly, The International Journal of the History of Sport, and Sport in Society.  He is also the author or editor of seven books.

Richard Shimooka is a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald- Laurier Institute. He was a Senior Fellow at the Defence Management Studies Programme at Queen’s University


from 2007–2012, and a Research Fellow at the Conference of Defence Associations Institute from 2012-2017. Richard works’ cover a diverse array of topics, including western foreign and defence policy, modern airpower and defence procurement.

Tiola Javadi is a Senior Analyst at the Indonesia Programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore. Her research mainly covers Indonesia’s foreign policy, civil-military relations, and the modernization of the Indonesian Military. She holds an M.Sc degree in Strategic Studies from RSIS.

Lt. Gen. Steven L. Kwast is the Commander, Air Education and Training Command, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. He is responsible for the recruiting, training and education of Air Force personnel. His command includes Air Force Recruiting Service, two numbered air forces and Air University. The command operates more than 1,400 trainer, fighter and mobility aircraft, 23 wings, 10 bases and five geographically separated groups. It trains more than 293,000 students per year with approximately 60,000 active-duty, Reserve, Guard, civilian and contractor personnel. 

General Kwast was commissioned upon graduation from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1986. After completing a master's degree in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, he was assigned to undergraduate pilot training where he earned his pilot wings in June 1989. General Kwast has served as military aide to the vice president and completed a National Defense Fellowship with the Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy at Boston University, Massachusetts. 

The general has commanded at the squadron, group and wing levels, including the 47th Operations Group at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, and the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina. He also served as the deputy director for Colonel Matters, Air Force Senior Leader Management Office, Washington, D.C., and as the commander, 455th Air Expeditionary Wing, Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. General Kwast was the deputy director for Politico-Military Affairs for Europe, NATO and Russia, Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate, Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Arlington, Va. Prior to his current assignment, General Kwast was the Commander and President, Air University, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. He has more than 3,300 flying hours, including more than 650 combat hours during operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Southern Watch, Allied Force and Enduring Freedom.

Reviews

This collection of contemporaneous views of 14 air forces from around the world not only esplains the reasons for their development and structure but also is forward leaning and identifies their future challenges and constraints. Each well-respected author highlights the uniqueness of the air force under consideration, and they find the thread that applies to all air forces, namely budgets and personnel. This book will make a valuable contribution to the professional library of air power scholars and enthusiasts.Group Captain Andrew Gilbert, RAAF Group Captain Andrew Gilbert, Director Air Power Development Centre, Royal Australian Air Force

Vital reading for defense and national security thinkers. Air Forces:  The Next Generation lays bare the drivers of air power development, a process where military capability and strategy often take a back seat to financial, cultural, and political realities. A careful read of this global air power analysis brings home the complexity of modernization planning and the challenge of matching integrated technologies to required capabilities. Whether your interests focus on major international players or regional powers, this look at air power modernization will enhance your understanding of national decision making and the future of military force development. Colonel Thomas McCarthy, PhD, USAF, Professor of Aerospace Studies

Air forces are constantly adapting and adjusting and it is therefore important to look at future procurement. The authors and editor have done sterling work investigating and researching the plans for future air force development. - The Wavell Room