James P. Lucier is Senior Fellow of the James Monroe Memorial Foundation, and a member of the Board of Regents of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is also Chairman of the Advisory Commission of the Thomas Balch Library, and 80 year-old archival center of local history and geneaology in Leesburg, Virginia, near Monroe's Loudoun County estate, Oak Hill. A staff member of the U.S. Senate for 25 years, and a former staff director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Lucier acquired a practical knowledge of diplomacy, legislative action, and separation-of-powers doctrine that led him to appreciate Monroe's career as a warrior, diplomat, Senator, Secretary of State and President. Lucier is currently Senior Editor of the national newsweekly, Insight on the News and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.