Speaker biographies

Dan Blumenthal joined AEI in November 2004 as a resident fellow in Asian studies. Previously, he was senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for international security affairs during the first George W. Bush administration. In that capacity, he led a team that formulated and implemented defense policies and programs toward, and for, these portfolio countries. Before his service at the Department of Defense, Mr. Blumenthal practiced law in New York and was a research assistant at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Mr. Blumenthal was appointed by Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) as a commissioner on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in February 2006.

Richard Fisher is vice president of the International Strategy and Assessment Center and director of the center's Project on Asian Security and Democracy. Mr. Fisher is a recognized authority on the People’s Republic of China’s military, the Asian military balance, and their implications for Asia and the United States. Mr. Fisher has worked on Asian security matters for over twenty years in a range of critical positions, including as Asian studies director at the Heritage Foundation, senior analyst for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox's Policy Committee in support of the report of the Select Committee for U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, and a consultant on People’s Liberation Army issues for the Congressionally chartered U.S.-China Security and Economic Review Commission. The author of nearly 200 studies on challenges to American security as well as economic and foreign policy towards Asia, he is a frequent commentator on Asian issues for radio and television and has testified on the modernization of China's military before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the House International Relations Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Daryl Kimball became the executive director of the Arms Control Association (ACA) in September 2001. The ACA is a private, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to public education and support of effective arms control measures pertaining to nuclear, chemical, biological, and conventional weapons. From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Kimball was the executive director of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, a consortium of seventeen of the largest U.S. nongovernmental organizations working together to strengthen national and international security by reducing the threats posed by nuclear weapons. From 1989 to 1997, Mr. Kimball worked as the associate director for policy, and later as the director of security programs, for Physicians for Social Responsibility. Mr. Kimball is a frequent source for reporters and has written and spoken extensively about nuclear arms control, nonproliferation, and weapons production.

Evan Medeiros is an expert in Chinese foreign and national security policy, U.S.-China relations, and Chinese military affairs at the RAND Corporation. Prior to coming to RAND, he served as a senior research associate in the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, from 1999 to 2002. In 2000, Mr. Medeiros was a visiting scholar at the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. From 1993 to 1995, he served as a project associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Henry Sokolski is the executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, a Washington-based nonprofit organization founded in 1994 to promote a better understanding of strategic weapons proliferation issues for academics, policymakers, and the media. He is also an adjunct professor at the Institute of World Politics in Washington. He served from 1989 to 1993 as deputy for nonproliferation policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense under Paul Wolfowitz, receiving the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Prior to his appointment to this post, Mr. Sokolski worked in the Office of Net Assessment on proliferation issues. He served from 1984 through 1988 as senior military legislative aide to Senator Dan Quayle and as special assistant on nuclear energy matters to Senator Gordon Humphrey from 1982 through 1983. Mr. Sokolski was a consultant to the National Intelligence Council, as well as the Deutch Proliferation Commission and the Central Intelligence Agency's Senior Advisory Panel. Mr. Sokolski has been a resident fellow at the National Institute for Public Policy, the Heritage Foundation, and the Hoover Institution.

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