Biographical Statements

April 11, 2005

Eliot Cohen is the Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University and founding director of the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies there. He came to SAIS in 1990 after having taught at Harvard University and at the Naval War College (Department of Strategy), and following service on the policy planning staff of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He has written books and articles on a variety of military and national security-related subjects, including, most recently, Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime (Free Press, 2002). He has written or coauthored other books, including Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War, and directed the U.S. Air Force's official multi-volume study of the Gulf War, the Gulf War Air Power Survey. He has an extensive background in executive education, including directing programs for general officers in the American armed forces and senior executives in the private sector. He served as an intelligence officer in the United States Army Reserve and is a member of the Defense Policy Board of the Office of the Secretary of Defense and other governmental advisory groups.

Thomas Donnelly is resident fellow in defense and security policy studies at AEI. He is the author of Operation Iraqi Freedom: A Strategic Assessment (AEI Press, 2004), AEI’s monthly National Security Outlook, and a forthcoming study, The Military We Need: The Defense Requirements of the Bush Doctrine (AEI Press, 2005). In February 2005, he was appointed by Senator Bill Frist to a two-year term on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. 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.

Brigadier General David A. Fastabend assumed duties as the deputy director and chief of staff of the Futures Center at U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Virginia, in January 2005. Prior to this assignment, he had served as the director of concepts, development and experimentation at the Futures Center from June 2003 to January 2005. He is an engineer officer who has served in command and staff positions throughout the Army in the United States and overseas. His command assignments include command of B Company, 10th Combat Engineer Battalion in Germany; command of the 13th Engineer Battalion, Fort Ord, California; command of the 555th Engineer Group, Fort Lewis, Washington; and commanding general of the United States Army Engineer Division, Northwestern, in Portland, Oregon.

Michèle A. Flournoy is senior adviser in the CSIS International Security Program, where she works on a broad range of defense policy and international security issues. Previously, she was a distinguished research professor at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University (NDU), where she founded and led the university's Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) working group, which was chartered by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Prior to joining NDU, she was dual-hatted as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction and deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy. She was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in 1996, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1998, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 2000. In addition to three edited volumes, Flournoy has published numerous articles and reports on a variety of international security issues. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Strategy Group, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and the Executive Board of Women in International Security. She is a former member of the Defense Policy Board and the Defense Science Board Task Force on Transformation.

General John M. Keane, U.S. Army (retired), served as vice chief of staff for the U.S. Army from 1999 until his retirement in October 2003. During his four years in this job, he managed operations of more than 1.5 million soldiers and civilians in over 120 countries and an annual budget in excess of $110 billion. Before his appointment, General Keane served as the deputy commander-in-chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command and was a career paratrooper who commanded at every level. General Keane is a combat veteran, having served as a platoon leader and company commander in Vietnam. His Army awards and decorations include two Defense Distinguished Service Medals, the Silver Star, five Legions of Merit, and the Bronze Star Medal. He is also a military contributor and analyst for ABC News.

Frederick W. Kagan is an associate professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He is the coauthor of While America Sleeps: Self-Delusion, Military Weakness, and the Threat to Peace Today (St. Martin’s Press, 2000), as well as numerous articles on defense and foreign policy issues in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Weekly Standard, Policy Review, Commentary, Parameters, and elsewhere. He will be joining AEI this summer as a resident scholar in defense and security policy studies.

Colonel Robert Killebrew, U.S. Army (retired), is a private consultant in national defense issues. He is a retired Army infantry colonel, with service in U.S. Army Special Forces and airborne units, and has taught national and military strategy at the Army War College. While on active duty, he inaugurated the "Army After Next" project that became the Army transformation wargame series. Since retirement, he has served on the Hart-Rudman Commission on national defense in the 21st century, as well as other Defense Department and private studies of national defense issues, and has consulted for the military services and defense industries. He has written extensively in a variety of publications on emerging defense issues.

General Barry R. McCaffrey, U.S. Army (Ret.), is the Bradley Distinguished Professor of International Security Studies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He is also president of his own consulting firm based in Alexandria, Virginia. He serves as a national security and terrorism analyst for NBC News and writes a column on national security issues for Armed Forces Journal. General McCaffrey stepped down as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in January 2001, having served as a member of the president’s cabinet and the National Security Council for drug-related issues since February 1996. Prior to confirmation as the national drug policy director, General McCaffrey served as the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces Southern Command coordinating national security operations in Latin America. During his military career, he served overseas for thirteen years and completed four combat tours. He commanded the 24th Infantry Division (Mech) during the Desert Storm 400-kilometer left hook attack into Iraq. At retirement from active duty, he was the most highly decorated four-star general in the U.S. Army. He twice received the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest medal for valor. He was also awarded two Silver Stars and received three Purple Heart medals for wounds sustained in combat. General McCaffrey served as the assistant to General Colin Powell and supported the chairman as the JCS adviser to the secretary of state and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. General McCaffrey remains active in national security affairs. He recently co-chaired the Atlantic Council of the United States NATO Counterterrorism Working Group, leading a delegation to Moscow, Mons, Brussels, and Warsaw. In January 2004, General McCaffrey visited Iraq to conduct a country-wide evaluation of the security situation, and in August 2004, he visited Afghanistan and Pakistan to conduct a political-military assessment.

Michael O'Hanlon is a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in U.S. defense strategy and budgeting, American foreign policy, and homeland security. He is also a visiting lecturer at Princeton University and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations. Among his latest books are Neither Star Wars Nor Sanctuary: Constraining the Military Uses of Space (Brookings Institution Press, 2004); Crisis on the Korean Peninsula (McGraw-Hill, 2003), coauthored with Mike Mochizuki; Expanding Global Military Capacity for Humanitarian Intervention (Brookings Institution Press, 2003); Defending America: The Case for National Missile Defense (2001), coauthored with James Lindsay; and Technological Change and the Future of Warfare (2000). His latest book is Beyond Iraq: Defense Policy in the 2nd Bush Administration (Brookings Institution Press, 2005). He has published articles and op-eds in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, Washington Quarterly, and Survival, International Security, among others. He has appeared on the major television networks more than 100 times since September 11, 2001, and also appears frequently on the CNN, MSNBC, BBC, and FOX networks. Before beginning his work at Brookings in 1994, he was an analyst at the Congressional Budget Office from 1989 to 1994. He also worked previously at the Institute for Defense Analyses.

Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters, U.S. Army (Ret.) is a writer, strategist, and commentator. He served in the U.S. Army for twenty-two years, first as an enlisted man, then as an officer. As a soldier, he served in Infantry and Military Intelligence units before becoming a Foreign Area Officer specializing in Russia and surrounding states. In addition to assignments to the Pentagon and the Executive Office of the president, he served and lived in Europe for a total of ten years. Recent travels have taken him to Iraq and back to Africa. He is the author of nineteen books and several hundred columns, articles, and essays, including three books on strategy and military affairs: Beyond Baghdad, Beyond Terror and Fighting for the Future. He is presently at work on a new book on strategy that argues for a dramatic realignment of our nation’s engagements abroad and for extensive military and diplomatic reforms. Also a novelist, under his own name and as Owen Parry, he has written a number of bestsellers and prize-winning historical novels. His commentaries and essays have appeared in the New York Post, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Newsweek, Harpers, Parameters, Strategic Review, Maclean's, and a wide range of other domestic and foreign publications. He has appeared on every major American television and cable-news network, as well as on numerous national and regional radio programs.

Major General David C. Ralston is director of force management in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. He was commissioned a second lieutenant of field artillery in 1975 and, following graduation from the field artillery officer basic course, commanded three batteries, two in the continental United States and one in the Federal Republic of Germany. He later served as the brigade fire support officer for 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division. He was assigned to the Total Army Personnel Command from 1984 to 1987. Upon graduation from the Command and General Staff College, he was assigned to Fort Hood, Texas where he served as Battalion S3, DivArty S3, and DivArty executive officer. He assumed command of 3d Battalion, 1st Field Artillery, 3rd Infantry Division at Bamberg, Germany, in June 1992. Following his command tour, Maj. Gen. Ralston served as an Army War College Fellowship at Harvard University. In July 1995, he was assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Military Personnel Policy). In June 1997, he assumed command of Division Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. He subsequently became chief of staff of the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In March 2001 he assumed duties as assistant chief of staff for operations for Kosovo Force. In October 2001, he returned to Fort Sill and assumed duties as the deputy commanding general of Fort Sill and the assistant commandant of the Field Artillery School. Maj. Gen. Ralston's military awards and decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Army Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, and the Kosovo Campaign Medal.

Major General Robert Scales, U.S. Army (Ret.) is president of Colgen, Inc, a consulting firm specializing in issues relating to land power, war-gaming, and strategic leadership. Prior to joining the private sector, he served for over thirty years in the U.S. Army. He commanded two units in Vietnam, winning the Silver Star for action during the battles around Dong Ap Bia (Hamburger Hill) during the summer of 1969. Subsequently, he served in command and staff positions in the United States, Germany, and Korea, and ended his military career as commandant of the U.S. Army War College. In 1995 he created the "Army After Next" program, the Army’s first attempt to build a strategic game and operational concept for future land warfare. He has written and lectured on warfare to academic, government, military, and business groups in the United States, Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and South America. He is the author of two books on military history: Certain Victory, the official account of the Army in the Gulf War, and Firepower in Limited War, a history of the evolution of firepower doctrine since the end of the Korean War. He was the only serving officer to have written books subsequently selected for inclusion in the official reading lists of two services: Certain Victory for the Army and Firepower for the Marine Corps. He has also written two books on the theory of warfare: Future Warfare, a strategic anthology on America’s wars to come, and Yellow Smoke: the Future of Land Warfare for America's Military. His latest work, The Iraq War: A Military History, written with Williamson Murray, has been reviewed favorably by the New York Times and Foreign Affairs. He is the senior military analyst for The BBC, National Public Radio and Fox News Network, and is a frequent commentator and consultant for other major media networks on issues relating to military history and defense policy.

Gary Schmitt is executive director of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a D.C.-based national security think tank. While in government, he served as minority staff director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and as executive director of the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under President Reagan. He has also worked as a consultant to the Defense Department and taught and lectured at several American universities. He has published articles in various academic, legal and public policy journals, and has written for the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and the Weekly Standard. His most recent book, coauthored with Abram N. Shulsky, is Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence (3rd edition: 2002).

Major Donald Vandergriff, U.S. Army, is a recognized authority on leadership, personnel, and organizational effectiveness. He has received several leadership, teaching, and book awards. He has written and edited two books, a chapter in a book, and fifty articles (published and online) dealing with the above issues. He is retiring later this year following a twenty-three-year Army career. He has also consulted Congress, Army leaders, and think tanks on military personnel and transformation issues. Major Vandergriff is currently writing his next book dealing with the education and training of future leaders called Raising the Bar: Creating Adaptive Leaders to Deal with the Changing Face of War (Naval Institute Press, forthcoming).

Mike Vickers is director of strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), an independent public policy research institute located in Washington, D.C. He is currently a senior adviser to the secretary of defense for the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review. From 1973 to 1986, he served as an Army Special Forces officer and CIA operations officer, with extensive operational and combat experience in Central America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Central Asia. During the mid-1980s, he was the principal strategist for the largest covert action program in the CIA’s history: the paramilitary operation that drove the Soviet army out of Afghanistan and played a major role in ending the Cold War. His Afghanistan experience is described in the New York Times bestseller and soon-to-be-released major motion picture starring Tom Hanks, Charlie Wilson's War. He holds advanced degrees in business administration from the Wharton School and in strategic studies from Johns Hopkins University. This spring he will complete his Ph.D. dissertation at Johns Hopkins on the structure of military revolutions. His most recent publication is The Revolution in War (CSBA, 2004). He has consulted extensively to the Pentagon on the global war on terrorism, the war in Iraq, and force transformation.

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