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.

Mauro De Lorenzo is a resident fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at AEI, where he studies private sector-based approaches to development in postconflict and post-Socialist countries; Chinese investment and political influence outside the Pacific region, particularly in Africa; and democratic accountability in aid-receiving countries. In 2005, Mr. De Lorenzo worked as a consultant to Afghan construction companies in Kabul, and prior to that he was a research associate at both the American University in Cairo and the Makerere Institute of Social Research in Kampala, Uganda, focusing on refugee policy and the wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. In 2002, he researched and was associate producer of The Price of Aid, a BBC documentary about U.S. food aid to Africa.

General Carlton W. Fulford (U.S. Marine Corps, retired) is a consultant for the U.S. government and other private organizations on security matters. He served as director of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Department of Defense regional center, from 2003-2006. General Fulford retired from the Marine Corps in February 2003 after serving as deputy commander of U.S. European Command, a position that included extensive work on U.S.-Africa relations and travel throughout Africa. He has previously served as commanding general of Fleet Marine Force–Pacific; commander of U.S. Marine Corps Bases–Pacific; commanding general of I Marine Expeditionary Force; commanding general of III Marine Expeditionary Force; commanding general of 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade; and commanding officer of Task Force Ripper during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. General Fulford also served as director of the Joint Staff from 1999 to 2000 and vice director from 1995 to 1996.

Rear Admiral James M. Hart (U.S. Navy, retired) is the director deputy for strategy and plans at AFRICOM. In the course of his Navy career, he commanded Sea Control Squadron 24 and Carrier Air Wing 17; served joint duty tours as deputy J3 on Joint Task Force Southwest Asia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and served as deputy joint force commander of Sky Anvil, the contingency planning task force for the Kosovo conflict. He also commanded the Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa from February 2007 until February 2008. Rear Admiral Hart’s Washington tours included posts at the Naval Military Personnel Command, the Warfare Requirements Directorate of the Air Warfare Division in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and as director of the Total Force Programming and Manpower Management Division in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

Robert Houdek retired from the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in September 2007, and is currently working as a consultant on African affairs. From October 1997 to September 2006, he served as the national intelligence officer for Africa. During his last year with the NIC, he was an advisor to the deputy director of national intelligence for analysis on the project to rebuild the capability of the African intelligence community. Before joining the NIC, he served as an advisor to the chief of staff of the Agency for International Development (AID) on the president’s Greater Horn of Africa Initiative. During the first half of 1997, he was detailed to AID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, serving as the negotiator on a Disaster Assistance Response Team in Eastern Zaire. Ambassador Houdek was a foreign service officer from 1962 to 1996. He served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Eritrea (1993-96); deputy assistant secretary of state for African Affairs (1991-93); chief of mission in the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (1988-91); ambassador to Uganda (1985-88); deputy chief of mission in the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya (1980-84); and deputy director of the Office of West African Affairs. He also was on the White House staff from 1969 to 1971 as a special assistant to then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger.

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 Department of Defense 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.

J. Peter Pham is the director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C. He is also currently vice president of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa. A specialist in African politics and security, terrorism, and political violence, Mr. Pham is the author of over two hundred essays and the author, editor, or translator of over a dozen books. In 2005, he served as member of the International Republican Institute (IRI) delegation monitoring the national elections in Liberia. He also served on the subsequent IRI pre-election assessment and election observation delegations to Nigeria.

Witney Schneidman is the president of Schneidman and Associates International. He served in the Clinton administration as deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, where he was responsible for economic and commercial issues in sub-Saharan Africa. He helped organize President Bill Clinton’s two visits to Africa and was a member of both official delegations. He was senior vice president at Samuels International Associates in Washington, D.C., and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has also worked for the World Bank as a senior policy analyst and as a senior associate at the Investor Responsibility Research Center.

Theresa Whelan currently serves as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for African affairs at the Department of Defense. Her office is responsible for Department of Defense policy for all of sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, Ms. Whelan served as director of the office of African affairs for two years. From June 1998 until November 2000 she was assigned to the undersecretary of defense for policy’s Balkans Task Force, at which she served first as the NATO team chief on the task force during the Kosovo crisis, and then as the task force deputy chief of staff. She was also a Department of Defense representative on the U.S. negotiating team at the Kosovo talks in Rambouillet and Paris, France from February to March 1999. Ms. Whelan was senior program director for the U.S.–South Africa Joint Defense Committee from January to August 1997, countries director for southern Africa from January 1994 to January 1997, and countries director for west Africa from September 1991 to January 1994.

View Event Details