2020 WEST: Premier Sea Services Event San Diego

Hunter Stires
Project Director of the U.S. Naval Institute’s Maritime Counterinsurgency Project
U.S. Naval War College


Hunter Stires is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Navy League’s Center for Maritime Strategy. He served as the Maritime Strategist to the 78th Secretary of the Navy, where he was recognized for his work as one of the principal architects of the Maritime Statecraft strategy put into action by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro to rebuild America’s comprehensive maritime power, both commercial and naval. He serves as the Project Director of the U.S. Naval Institute’s Maritime Counterinsurgency Project and the Founder and CEO of The Maritime Strategy Group. A graduate of Columbia University, Mr. Stires previously served in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and in several positions on the Navy Staff, including in the OPNAV N96 Surface Warfare Directorate, OPNAV N95 Expeditionary Warfare Directorate, and OPNAV N522 Navy Irregular Warfare Group. Mr. Stires has been published widely, with his work appearing in outlets including the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, the Naval War College Review, Defense One, The National Interest, the Center for International Maritime Security, as well as the Center for Maritime Strategy’s journal, The MOC. He has been recognized twice with the U.S. Naval Institute’s General Prize. He was awarded 1st Prize for “The South China Sea Needs a ‘COIN’ Toss,” published in Proceedings in May 2019; he was awarded 2nd Prize for “Win Without Fighting,” published in June 2020. His article in the Summer 2019 issue of the Naval War College Review, “‘They Were Playing Chicken:’ The U.S. Asiatic Fleet’s Gray-Zone Deterrence Campaign against Japan, 1937-40,” was selected for inclusion in the Newport Papers monograph Deterrence. Mr. Stires’s published work has been cited in a wide range of outlets, including Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, the Australian Naval Institute, War on the Rocks, The National Interest, 19FortyFive, gCaptain, The Maritime Executive, Breaking Defense, The Strategy Bridge, Ilta-Sanomat, Iltalehti, the Liberty Times, Rappler, and the South China Morning Post —as well as the Chinese language edition of the Global Times.

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