Speaker biographies
Stephen J. Blank has served as the Strategic Studies Institute’s expert on the Soviet bloc and the post-Soviet world since 1989. He was previously an associate professor of Soviet studies at the Center for Aerospace Doctrine, Research, and Education, Maxwell Air Force Base, and taught at the University of Texas, San Antonio and the University of California, Riverside. Mr. Blank is the editor of Imperial Decline: Russia’s Changing Position in Asia, coeditor of Soviet Military and the Future, and author of Natural Allies? Regional Security in Asia and Prospects for Indo-American Strategic Cooperation. Mr. Blank’s current research deals with weapons proliferation and the revolution in military affairs, energy, and security in Eurasia.
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.
Thomas Donnelly is a resident fellow in defense and security policy studies at AEI and editor of Armed Forces Journal. He is the author of The Military We Need: The Defense Requirements of the Bush Doctrine, Operation Iraqi Freedom: A Strategic Assessment, and AEI’s National Security Outlook. In February 2005, he was appointed by Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to a two-year term on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Before coming to AEI, he served as the director of strategic communications and initiatives at Lockheed Martin and as deputy executive director of the Project for the New American Century. From 1995 to 1999, he was the policy group director, as well as a professional staff member, for the Committee on National Security (now the Committee on Armed Services) in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Donnelly has also been the executive director of The National Interest, editor of the Army Times, and deputy editor of Defense News.
Selig Harrison is the director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy, senior scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and adjunct professor of Asian studies at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He has specialized in south Asia and east Asia for fifty years as a journalist and scholar. He is the author of five books on Asian affairs and U.S. relations with Asia, including Korean Endgame: A Strategy for Reunification and U.S. Disengagement. Mr. Harrison served as south Asia correspondent of the Associated Press from 1951 to 1954, the South Asia bureau chief of the Washington Post from 1962 to 1965, and the northeast Asia bureau chief for the Post from 1968 to 1972. From 1974 to 1996, he was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previous positions include managing editor of The New Republic, senior fellow in charge of Asian studies at Brookings Institution, senior fellow at the East-West Center, and professorial lecturer in Asian studies at the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
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, D.C., and the Middle East.
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. Mr. Sokolski 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.
Philip Zelikow was appointed counselor of the U.S. Department of State in February 2005, where he serves as a senior policy advisor to the secretary of state on a wide range of issues. Before his appointment as counselor, Mr. Zelikow served as the staff director of the 9/11 Commission. Formerly a trial and appellate attorney in Houston, Mr. Zelikow was a career foreign service officer overseas both in the Department of State and on detail to the National Security Council staff. He then taught at Harvard University and at the University of Virginia, where he remained until his current appointment as the White Burkett Miller Professor of History and director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs. A former member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Mr. Zelikow also directed the privately sponsored Carter-Ford Commission on Federal Election Reform, which led to the passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
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