LTC Ronald Alcala
LTC Ronald Alcala
Ronald Alcala is a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army. He is an Academy Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Strategy & Initiatives at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. He also serves as Managing Editor of the Lieber Institute for Law & Land Warfare’s Articles of War blog and Executive Editor of the West Point Press.
Before joining the faculty, Lieutenant Colonel Alcala served as a Judge Advocate in a number of legal positions advising commanders on criminal law, international law, and administrative law issues. He is co-editor of The Impact of Emerging Technologies on the Law of Armed Conflict (Oxford University Press, 2019) and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the American Society of International Law’s law of armed conflict interest group. His past assignments include Deputy Staff Judge Advocate, Special Operations Command Europe; Chief, Rule of Law, Multinational Division Center, Baghdad, Iraq; and Trial Counsel, Task Force Spartan and 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Lieutenant Colonel Alcala is a recipient of NATO’s Serge Lazareff Prize for excellence in legal services and the American Society of International Law's Richard R. Baxter Military Prize for scholarship on the law of war.
Lieutenant Colonel Alcala earned a B.A. in History and Classics from Williams College and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School. He also holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and an LL.M. in Military Law from the Judge Advocate General’s School in Charlottesville, Va.
Articles of War Posts