CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY (Tommy Waller and Douglas Ellsworth) - Remembering Ambassador R. James Woolsey’s Enduring Service
Ambassador R. James “Jim” Woolsey, who died on July 21, 2026, at the age of...
Ambassador R. James “Jim” Woolsey, who died on July 21, 2026, at the age of 84, embodied a vanishing ideal in American public life: the serious, non-partisan public servant who treated national security as a duty rather than a career ladder. Across four decades and administrations of both parties, he brought rigorous intellect, moral seriousness, and quiet courage to some of the hardest problems the United States has faced. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1941, Woolsey was a Rhodes Scholar who moved early into the national-security arena. He served as an advisor on the U.S. delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, General Counsel to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Under Secretary of the Navy under President Carter, and…Open