Speaker biographies

Thomas Donnelly is a resident fellow in defense and security policy studies at AEI. He is the author, with Frederick W. Kagan, of Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power (AEI Press, May 2008); the coeditor, with Gary J. Schmitt, of Of Men and Materiel: The Crisis in Military Resources (AEI Press, 2007); and the author of The Military We Need (AEI Press, 2005), Operation Iraqi Freedom: A Strategic Assessment (AEI Press, 2004), and several other books. From 1995 to 1999, he was policy group director and a professional staff member for the House Armed Services Committee. Mr. Donnelly also served as a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He is a former editor of Armed Forces Journal, Army Times, and Defense News.

Christopher Griffin is a research fellow in Asian studies at AEI. Before joining AEI in January 2005, he was a research assistant in the strategic studies department at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Since May 2006, Mr. Griffin has been an associate editor of Armed Forces Journal, for which he writes on defense-industrial issues and military blogs.

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 he 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 war-game series. Since retirement, he has served on the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (the Hart-Rudman Commission), as well as other Defense Department and private studies of national defense issues, and he has consulted for the military services and defense industries. Colonel Killebrew has written extensively in a variety of publications on emerging defense issues.

Ambassador Robert B. Oakley (retired) has been a fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University (NDU) since January 1995. He was acting director from August 1999 until January 2000. He retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in September 1991 after thirty-four years and became associated with the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). In December 1992, Ambassador Oakley was named by President George H. W. Bush as special envoy to Somalia, serving there with Operation Restore Hope until March 1993. In October 1993, he was again named as special envoy for Somalia by President Clinton and served in this capacity until March 1994. He is the coauthor of a book on his experiences in Somalia, Operation Restore Hope (USIP, 1995), coeditor of Policing the New World Disorder (NDU, 1998), and the author of a number of articles and speeches.

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