After commissioning from West Point in 1998, COL Ed Cox served as an armor officer in Germany and Fort Hood, Texas. He deployed once to Kosovo and twice to Iraq. He earned masters degrees in international relations and public administration at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School and served as an assistant professor of American politics at West Point.
COL Cox transferred to the Foreign Area Officer (FAO) functional area and specialized in Southeast Asia. He led the international engagements section for the U.S. Pacific Command Intelligence Directorate. From there, he was selected to serve as the Deputy Chief of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy Singapore.
COL Cox returned to the U.S. as the Japan program director at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. He served as the Deputy Chief for Mission Integration of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Indo-Pacific Regional Center. He was selected to serve as Army Attaché in Pakistan, notably during the 2025 conflict with India. He served as a U.S. Army War College Fellow at Yale University’s MacMillen Center. He now serves as a faculty member at the National War College.
COL Cox is the author of Grey Eminence: Fox Conner and the Art of Mentorship, which spent several years on the Army Chief of Staff’s reading list. He is an Eagle Scout. He is married and has two adult sons.