December 8, 2004

Speaker Biographies

Brigadier General Vincent K. Brooks is deputy chief of Army public affairs at the U.S. Department of Defense. He recently served as chief operations spokesman at U.S. Central Command during Operation Iraqi Freedom and subsequently as deputy director for the war on terrorism on the Pentagon Joint Staff. His previous military assignments have carried him to almost every corner of the globe, including Panama, Germany, Korea, Kosovo, and the Middle East. His decorations and badges include the Defense Superior Service Medal and the Legion of Merit (with Oak Leaf Cluster). He also has the distinction of being the first African-American brigade commander as top-ranking cadet in his class at the West Point Military Academy.
 
Thomas Donnelly is a resident fellow in defense and security policy at AEI. He is the author of Operation Iraqi Freedom: A Strategic Assessment (AEI Press, July 2004) and AEI’s National Security Outlook. Before coming to AEI, he served as the director of strategic communications and initiatives at Lockheed Martin and as deputy executive director of the Project for the New American Century. From 1995 to 1999, he was the policy group director, as well as a professional staff member, for the Committee on National Security (now the Committee on Armed Services) in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Donnelly has also been the executive director of The National Interest, editor of the Army Times, and deputy editor of Defense News.

Robert D. Kaplan, a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, is the bestselling author of ten books on international affairs and travel, translated into twenty languages. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has called Mr. Kaplan among the four “most widely read” authors defining the post–Cold War era. Former president Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush are readers of Mr. Kaplan’s books, and he has briefed President Bush in the White House. Besides The Atlantic Monthly, his essays have appeared on the editorial pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. He has been a consultant to the U.S. Army’s Special Forces Regiment, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Marines. He has lectured at military war colleges, the FBI, the U.S. State Department, the National Security Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, the CIA, major universities, and business forums. He has reported from nearly eighty countries and is the recipient of the 2001 Greenway-Winship Award for Excellence in international reporting. In 2002, he was awarded the State Department’s distinguished public service award for outstanding contributions to international affairs.

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