March 31, 2004

Speaker Biographies

Lorne W. Craner was sworn in as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor in June 2001. In this position, he coordinates U.S. foreign policy and programs that support the promotion and protection human rights and democracy worldwide. Before this appointment, Mr. Craner was president of the International Republican Institute (IRI), a position he had held since 1995. As president, he led IRI to new levels of program achievement, fundraising, financial accountability, and news coverage. He joined the IRI, which conducts programs outside the United States to promote democracy, free markets, and the rule of law, in 1993 as vice president for programs. From 1992 to 1993, Mr. Craner was director of Asian affairs at the National Security Council. Between 1989 and 1992, he was deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs. He was Senator John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) foreign policy adviser from 1986 to 1989, serving concurrently as the Republican staffer on the Senate Central America Negotiations Observer Group.

Jeannie Henderson has served as first secretary (political) at the Embassy of Australia in Washington, D.C., since June 2001. Australia is chairing the current session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Ms. Henderson joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1999, having previously held positions in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Office of National Assessments in Canberra. Ms. Henderson was a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London (1997–1998) and published an Adelphi Paper, Reassessing ASEAN. From 1998 to 1999, she undertook a fellowship at the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Alison Kelly has been political counselor at the Embassy of Ireland since January 2003, with responsibility for foreign policy issues. Ireland currently holds the presidency of the European Union for the period January–June 2004. Her previous assignment from 1998 was as U.N. director in the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin, a period in which Ireland was elected to and served as a non-permanent member of the Security Council.  Her earlier posts include periods in the Political, European Union, and Information Divisions of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin and postings in Madrid, Cairo, and the Hague, as well as a number of assignments at the CSCE and OSCE.

Tom Malinowski has been Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch since April 2001, responsible for the organization’s overall advocacy effort with the United States government. Before joining Human Rights Watch, he was special assistant to President Bill Clinton and senior director for foreign policy speechwriting at the National Security Council. From 1994 to 1998, he was a speechwriter for Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright and a member of the State Department policy planning staff. He has also worked for the Ford Foundation and as a legislative aide to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He appears frequently as a radio, television, and op-ed commentator on U.S. human rights policy worldwide.

AEI resident scholar Joshua Muravchik is an adjunct professor at the Institute of World Politics, and he previously served as member of the Maryland State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He is the author of Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism (2002); The Imperative of American Leadership: A Challenge to Neo-Isolationism (1996); Exporting Democracy: Fulfilling America’s Destiny (1991); and The Uncertain Crusade: Jimmy Carter and the Dilemmas of Human Rights Policy (1986). His monograph, Covering the Intifada: How the Media Reported the Palestinian Uprising, was published in 2003.

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