James P. Farwell is an expert in information warfare, influence operations, and cyber policy and strategy, with a geo-topical expertise in the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan. He has advised the U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Strategic Command, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (Policy), Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (Intelligence), and the U.S. Marine Corps on these topics. He is a senior fellow in London at the Sympodium Institute for Strategic Studies; a former non-resident senior fellow at the Middle East Institute; and a senior fellow at the Institute for Biodefense Research.
As a political consultant he was the executive director of John McCain’s Ad Council for his 2008 race for President, former Speaker Newt Gingrich as Speaker and as a candidate for President in 2012. On a non-partisan basis, in 2016, he advised Governor John Kasich, other Presidential candidates, and, continuing, Mr. Gingrich, on national security matters. He has advised heads of state in elections in South Korea, Greece, and Bermuda.
An attorney, Farwell has served as Of Counsel to Elkins PLC in New Orleans specializing in cybersecurity and holds the advanced CIPP/US certification in cybersecurity. For many years he was a partner in the New Orleans law firm Chaffe McCall.
He writes regularly for journals and newspapers, including Parameters, Strategic Studies Quarterly, The National Interest, Survival, and other publications. He is the author of The Pakistan Cauldron (Washington: Potomac Books, 2011); Persuasion & Power (Washington: Georgetown U. Press, 2012); Communication Strategy (Tampa: Joint Special Operations University, 2015)(Co-author: Darby Arakelian); Revitalizing Cities (Lafayette: U. of Lafayette Louisiana, 2016); The Architecture of Cybersecurity (co-authors V. Roddy, G. Elkins, Y. Chalker)(Lafayette: Sans Souci/U. of Lafayette Louisiana, 2017); Information Warfare (Quantico: Marine Corps University Press, 2019); and The Corporate Warrior (Rothstein Publishing, 2022). He has written an opera, The Fabulist, being produced at the Charing Cross Theatre in London by Tony Award-winner Steven Levy, opening in August 2024; and a comedy, Legal Insanity, to be produced by Steven Levy in the United Kingdom in 2025.
Education
B.A. Tulane, J.D. Tulane Law School, D.C.L.S., Cambridge University (Trinity College)
Countries of Expertise
Pakistan, Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Iraq, Mexico
Issues of Expertise
Information warfare, influence operations, communication strategy; and the realm of cyber: policy, strategy, authorities; New Generation Warfare (Russian Hybrid Warfare, China’s Three Warfares concept, U.S. Gray Zone warfare) and weaponized social media. He is also an expert in the Mexican drug wars.
