Speaker Biographies

July 25, 2005

Thomas Donnelly is a resident fellow in defense and security policy at AEI, and has just been named to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He is the author of The Military We Need: The Defense Requirements of the Bush Doctrine (AEI Press, May 2005), 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 Einhorn is a senior adviser in the CSIS International Security Program, where he works on a broad range of nonproliferation, arms control, and other national security issues. Before working at CSIS, he was assistant secretary for nonproliferation at the Department of State, where he was responsible for nonproliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, missile delivery systems, and advanced conventional arms. In that capacity, he was the principal adviser to the secretary of state on nonproliferation matters, oversaw U.S. participation in the multilateral nonproliferation export control regimes, and represented the U.S. in nonproliferation discussions and negotiations with a wide variety of countries in East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Before working at the State Department, he served at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) from 1972 to 1984, where he dealt with strategic arms issues, nuclear testing limits, chemical and biological weapons constraints, nonproliferation, and other security issues. He was presented the Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award by Secretary Colin L. Powell in August 2001. Einhorn has authored several publications on strategic nuclear issues, arms control, and nonproliferation. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

Danielle Pletka is the vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at AEI. Her research areas include the Middle East (including Iran, Iraq, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict), South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan), terrorism, and weapons proliferation. While at AEI, Ms. Pletka has developed a conference series on rebuilding post-Saddam Iraq, a project on democracy for the Arab world, a roundtable of experts to discuss global energy security, and a project to develop bilateral relations between India and the United States. Before coming to AEI, she served for ten years as a senior professional staff member for the Near East and South Asia on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Ms. Pletka has also been a journalist based in Washington and the Middle East.

Henry Sokolski is executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. From 1983 to 1988, he served as Senator Dan Quayle’s senior military legislative aide, and from 1989 to 1993, as deputy for nonproliferation policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Sokolski was appointed by Congress to the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, which completed its report in 1999. He has also served as a member of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Senior Advisory Panel. Among his published works, Mr. Sokolski has written Best of Intentions: America’s Campaign Against Strategic Weapons Proliferation (2001). He has contributed articles to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Weekly Standard, the National Interest, and many other periodicals. He has appeared on CNN, CBS, and ABC news, "20/20," "60 Minutes," "The Lehrer News Hour," National Public Radio, and been cited in virtually all of the country’s major news publications.

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