Speaker Biographies
October 17, 2005
Louis Fisher is senior specialist in the separation of powers with the Congressional Research Service. He was research director of the House Iran-Contra Committee in 1987 and wrote several sections of the final report. His books include American Constitutional Law (6th ed. 2005), Military Tribunals and Presidential Power: American Revolution to the War on Terrorism (2005), Presidential War Power (2004), The Politics of Executive Privilege (2004), and Nazi Saboteurs on Trial: A Military Tribunal & American Law (2003).
Francis Gavin is an assistant professor of public affairs at the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas–Austin. Mr. Gavin joined the LBJ School faculty in the fall of 2000. He was previously an Olin National Security Fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs and an international security fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He directed the Presidency and Economic Policy Project at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. A historian by training, his teaching and research interests focus on U.S. foreign policy, national security affairs, nuclear strategy and arms control, presidential policymaking, and the history of international monetary relations. Mr. Gavin’s publications include numerous scholarly articles, book reviews, and editorials. His book, Gold, Dollars, and Power: The Politics of International Monetary Relations, 1958-1971, was published by the University of North Carolina Press (2004). Mr. Gavin has won several prestigious awards and honors, including the 2002-2003 Smith Richardson Junior Faculty Fellowship in International Security and Foreign Policy and the 2003–2004 Donald D. Harrington Faculty Fellowship at the University of Texas. His current research project is entitled, "Strategy and Arms Control Reconsidered: Missile Defense, Nuclear Proliferation, and U.S. National Security Policy during the 1960's."
Danielle Pletka is the vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at AEI. Her research areas include the Middle East, South Asia, terrorism, and weapons proliferation. While at AEI, Ms. Pletka has developed a conference series on rebuilding post-Saddam Iraq and a project on democracy in the Arab world. 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.
David Rivkin is a partner in the Washington office of Baker & Hostetler LLP, a visiting fellow at the Nixon Center, a contributing editor of the National Review and National Interest magazines and a member of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (an expert body supporting the UN Human Rights Commission). He specializes in regulatory and litigation work, with a particular emphasis on constitutional and international law and public policy issues. Before returning to the private sector, Mr. Rivkin served in a variety of legal and policy positions in the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, including stints at the White House Counsel's office, the Office of the Vice President, and the Departments of Justice and Energy. Prior to embarking on a legal career, he served as a defense and foreign policy analyst, focusing on Soviet affairs, arms control, naval strategy, and NATO-related issues. Mr. Rivkin is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Council on Foreign Relations. He has published articles in various newspapers and magazines, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, National Interest, National Review, Policy Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Policy, and the University of Chicago Journal of International Law. He has been a frequent commentator and guest on television and radio shows, including CNN, MSNBC, ABC/Nightline, NBC, FOX News, NPR, BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and numerous Australian, French, German, and Swiss television stations.
John Yoo is a visiting scholar at AEI and a professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where he has taught since 1993. From 2001–03, Mr. Yoo served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on issues involving foreign affairs, national security, and the separation of powers. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee from 1995–96, where he advised on constitutional issues and judicial nominations. Mr. Yoo was an articles editor of the Yale Law Journal and, after graduating from law school, clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit. He later clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Yoo has published articles on foreign affairs, national security, and constitutional law in a number of the nation's leading law journals.
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