Speaker biographies

Frederick W. Kagan is a resident scholar in defense and security policy studies at AEI. His most recent book, Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy (Encounter Books), was published in September 2006. Previously an associate professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he is the author of The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801–1805 (Da Capo, 2006) and coauthor of While America Sleeps: Self-Delusion, Military Weakness, and the Threat to Peace Today (St. Martin’s Press, 2000). A contributing editor at The Weekly Standard, he has also written numerous articles on defense and foreign policy issues for Foreign Affairs, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Policy Review, Commentary, Parameters, and other periodicals.

General Jack Keane is senior managing director and co-founder of Keane Advisors, LLC, a private equity and consulting firm. He serves as a national security analyst for ABC News and speaks throughout the nation on national security and leadership. Still active in national security, General Keane conducted a personal assessment of the security situation in Iraq for senior defense officials in 2004 and 2005, and will conduct another assessment in 2006. He has been elected to the board of directors of MetLife, General Dynamics, and Allied Barton Security. He is a senior advisor to Kholberg, Kravis and Roberts, one of the nation’s largest private equity firms. He is also an advisor to the chairman & CEO of URS Corporation. He is a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board, a commissioner for one year on the Congressional Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, director of the George C. Marshall Foundation, director of the Knollwood Foundation, a member of the Executive Committee of the Pentagon Memorial Fund, chairman of the Terry Maude Foundation, and chairman of Senior Executive Committee of the Army Aviation Association of America. General Keane, a four-star general, completed thirty-seven years in public service in December 2003, culminating as acting chief of staff and vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army. As the chief operating officer of the Army for 4 1/2 years, he directed 1.5 million soldiers and civilians in 120 countries, with an annual operating budget of $110 billion. General Keane was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and provided oversight and support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. General Keane is a career paratrooper and a combat veteran of Vietnam who was decorated for valor and spent much of his military life in operational commands employed in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo. He commanded the famed 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and the legendary Eighteenth Airborne Corps, the Army’s largest war fighting organization.

Shawn Brimley is an associate fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Prior to joining CNAS, he was a research associate in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he worked on a variety of defense projects, including Beyond Goldwater-Nichols and the Project on Special Operations Forces. His current research focuses on U.S. defense strategy and capabilities for irregular warfare. Mr. Brimley has published commentary in several newspapers, including the Boston Globe, the Baltimore Sun, the Toronto Star, and Defense News.  He has published articles in the journals Joint Force Quarterly, Parameters, and Armed Forces Journal. He also coauthored a study of Cold War–era U.S. strategic planning for Princeton University’s Project on National Security.

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. She recently served as a member of the congressionally mandated Task Force on the United Nations, established by the United States Institute of Peace. 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.

View Event Details