James Kitfield has written on defense, national security and foreign policy issues from Washington, D.C. for over two decades. He is a three-time winner of the Gerald R. Ford Award for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense, most recently in 2009 for his first-hand reporting on the Afghan War and other ongoing conflicts and threats. He has twice won the Military Reporters and Editors Association award and the Medill School of Journalism’s top prize for excellence in reporting for his first hand coverage of the war in Afghanistan (2009) and the surge in Iraq (2008). He is a recipient of the 2002 Stewart Alsop Media Excellence Award, sponsored by the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, for his coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and follow-on events. He received the 2001 Peter R. Weitz Prize from the German Marshall Fund for excellence in reporting on European affairs, and the 2000 Edwin Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence given annually by the National Press Club to recognize excellence in reporting on diplomatic and foreign policy issues.

Kitfield is the author of the books War & Destiny (Potomac Books, 2005) and Prodigal Soldiers (Simon & Schuster, 1995). He appears frequently on radio and television, including as a regular guest on National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm Show, on Public Broadcasting’s Washington Week with Gwen Ifill, and on The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer. His articles have appeared in The National Interest, Omni, Newsday, Los Angeles Magazine, Army Times, Air Force Magazine, The Stars & Stripes, Off Duty, and other publications. Kitfield is a 1978 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry Grady School of Journalism.