After graduating from Wake Law in 1996, Jonathan G. Odom served globally for nearly three decades as a judge advocate in the United States Navy. He began his Naval career as a prosecutor, first in Japan and then in Italy. Thereafter, most of his legal practice in the Navy involved advising on matters of international law and national security law to senior U.S. civilian policy executives, U.S. and multi-national military commanders, headquarter staffs, and forces around the world for military operations at sea, in the air, on land, and in cyberspace. His headquarters assignments included the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Office of the Chief of … Read more »
After graduating from Wake Law in 1996, Jonathan G. Odom served globally for nearly three decades as a judge advocate in the United States Navy. He began his Naval career as a prosecutor, first in Japan and then in Italy. Thereafter, most of his legal practice in the Navy involved advising on matters of international law and national security law to senior U.S. civilian policy executives, U.S. and multi-national military commanders, headquarter staffs, and forces around the world for military operations at sea, in the air, on land, and in cyberspace. His headquarters assignments included the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Office of the Judge Advocate General in the Pentagon, as well as the Pacific Command headquarters staff in Hawaii. He deployed aboard U.S. Navy ships to the East China Sea, South China Sea, Gulf of Thailand, Indian Ocean, Arabian Gulf, Adriatic Sea, and Mediterranean Sea. He also deployed ashore with NATO ground forces for post-conflict stabilization operations in Kosovo, with U.S. Marine forces for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in Iraq, and with a joint force in response to the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan. At various points in his career, he also served as a legal and policy advisor on U.S. delegations for negotiations and official dialogues between the U.S. government and the governments of more than 20 nations around the world for matters involving international security, including most notably the People's Republic of China.
In addition, he has 12 years of experience teaching law full-time to a diverse range of audiences, including U.S. military and other U.S. government attorneys, other U.S. military personnel and civil servants, and foreign government officials from a total of 166 nations. From 2001 to 2004, he served as an Instructor of Law at the U.S. Naval Justice School, located in Newport, Rhode Island. From 2015 to 2019, he served as the Military Professor of Law at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, located in Honolulu, Hawaii. From 2019 to 2024, he served as the Military Professor of International Law at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, located in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
He is a recognized expert in fields of international law and national security law, who has published 10 law journal articles, 11 book chapters, and 20 opinion-editorials and online commentaries, who has spoken globally at 65 legal conferences and other academic events, and who has provided 13 interviews to U.S. and foreign news-media.
