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Austin Bay Austin Bay is author of three novels. His third novel, The Wrong Side of Brightness, was published by Putnam/Jove in June 2003. He has also co-authored four non-fiction books, to include A Quick and Dirty Guide to War: Third Edition (with James Dunnigan, Morrow, 1996).
Bay writes a syndicated column on international affairs for Creators Syndicate. He is a commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, covering foreign affairs but often addressing issues in Texas that have a national interest. Bay has appeared as a guest commentator on Fox News Channel, CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC and ABC News' "Nightline," as well as on numerous regional radio and TV shows. As a journalist, he has filed reports from throughout Europe, Central America, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. He is a contributing editor to FYEO, an Internet foreign affairs newsletter found at www.StrategyPage.com, and writes a weblog on his home page, www.austinbay.net.
Bay, who has had two commercial wargames published, worked for four years as a special consultant in wargaming in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (1989-1993). He is a colonel (retired) in the U.S. Army Reserve. In 2004, he was recalled to active duty and served in Iraq as chief of strategic initiatives, Multi-National Corps-Iraq (May-September 2004). He received the Bronze Star for meritorious service in Iraq.
Bay also served on active duty in the Pentagon during Operation Desert Storm (1991). On active duty in the 1970s, Bay served in Germany as a tank platoon leader in the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and as an assistant operations and chemical/nuclear defense officer in the headquarters of 1st Infantry Division's forward brigade group. (Goeppingen, Germany). While with 1st Infantry Division, his duties included liaison work with NATO allied units - in particular with West German, Canadian, and French forces. In 1995, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization sent him to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to observe anti-ballistic missile training exercises. In 1999, Bay accepted a special reserve tour in Guatemala, where he was deputy commander of a Hurricane Mitch recovery operation and medical relief mission. In October 2001, Bay served a two-week tour with Central Command headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.
Bay has a bachelor of arts from Rice University (1973) and has a Ph.D. in English and comparative literature from Columbia University (1987). He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff School and the U.S. Army War College. He currently teaches a course in strategy and strategic theory for the University of Texas' PLAN 2 undergraduate honors program. Recent projects include organizing a micro-development aid project for the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Texas.
Bay is a member of The Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, The Modern Language Association, The Reserve Officers Association, The National Conference of Editorial Writers and The Society of Professional Journalists.
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Austin Bay (May 23, 2012)
Greece wants two mulligans -- like a golfer demanding second chance, a do-over tee shot, times two. The immediate and obvious mulligan is a new national election. The... more
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Austin Bay (May 16, 2012)
The last two decades have demonstrated that NATO's post-Cold War death notices reprised a classic Mark Twain one-liner. When Twain learned that a New York newspaper had... more
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Austin Bay (May 09, 2012)
The 23-year-old photograph is a stunning record of Chinese courage past and an insight into China's present political turmoil. Unless China's government chooses liberty and... more
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Austin Bay (May 02, 2012)
NAFTA isn't NATO, at least not yet. However, the North American defense ministers conference hosted by Canada the last week of March sent the low-key but categorically public... more
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Austin Bay (Apr 25, 2012)
In the last two weeks, the lingering war between Sudan (northern Sudan, capital in Khartoum) and South Sudan (capital in Juba) has escalated dramatically. Fearing a wider... more
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Austin Bay (Apr 18, 2012)
Bashir al-Assad's Syrian dictatorship is fighting a "creeping war of repression" hideously similar to the "creeping war of aggression" Slobodan... more
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Austin Bay (Apr 11, 2012)
This past Tuesday, April 10, as the ceasefire arranged by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan supposedly commenced, Syrian rebels posted a short video on... more
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Austin Bay (Apr 04, 2012)
Somali pirates launched fewer successful attacks on commercial shipping in 2011. European Union nations want that trend to continue through 2012 and beyond. Last week, EU... more
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Austin Bay (Mar 28, 2012)
As President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ended a public conference in South Korea (a nation demonstrably threatened by North Korean ballistic... more
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Austin Bay (Mar 21, 2012)
China's tough neighborhood has gotten just a little bit tougher for China, diplomatically and militarily, and Beijing ought to blame its own political blundering.... more
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Austin Bay (Mar 14, 2012)
In the wake of the murder of 16 innocent Afghan civilians, slain by a lone American soldier, the Afghan government is asking the Obama administration to do two things.... more
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Austin Bay (Mar 07, 2012)
Argentina is using the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War to tout its historical claim to the South Atlantic islands. The diplomatic ballyhoo includes trade threats aimed... more
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Austin Bay (Feb 29, 2012)
Syria's Assad regime is conducting a deadly and very personal counterattack on its most dangerous enemy: information.
Syria is now the most crucial battleground in the... more
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Austin Bay (Feb 22, 2012)
Last month, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper told the U.S. Senate that "Mexico"s government remains committed to fighting the country's drug cartels and... more
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Austin Bay (Feb 15, 2012)
Anarchists tossing firebombs celebrated the Greek government's latest round of economic austerity measures. In their violent revelry's afterglow, four dozen or so Athenian... more
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Austin Bay (Feb 08, 2012)
In a Feb. 1 Wall Street Journal essay, the always eloquent and astute Fouad Ajami characterized Syria's bitter and bloody struggle as the Cold War's last battle.
Ajami's... more
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Austin Bay (Feb 01, 2012)
Sudan and South Sudan's slow yet deadly war of blood for oil reserves has ensnared Africa's slyest empire builder: Communist China.
The two Sudans' complex background... more
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Austin Bay (Jan 25, 2012)
Should war with Iran erupt, you can bet the 2012 election that the Obama administration hopes the national press will conveniently forget Ambassador Ryan Crocker's September... more
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Austin Bay (Jan 18, 2012)
February 2012 will mark the 40th anniversary of former President Richard Nixon's historic Cold War visit to China. Nixon's trip produced the Shanghai Communique, a diplomatic... more
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Austin Bay (Jan 11, 2012)
President Barack Obama's new American defense strategy doesn't look so new. His election-slanted Defense Strategic Guidance manifesto sounds more than a bit like Donald... more
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Austin Bay (Jan 04, 2012)
Colossal sovereign debts owed by member nations may yet shatter the eurozone. The political effects of a euro-breakup are uncertain, though Greece may be serving as an... more