Speaker biographies
Leon Aron is a resident scholar and director of Russian studies at AEI. He is the author of the first full-scale scholarly biography of Boris Yeltsin, Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life (St. Martin’s Press, 2000). Since 1998, he has written AEI’s Russian Outlook, a quarterly essay on economic, political, social, and cultural aspects of Russia’s post-Soviet transition. He has contributed numerous essays and articles to newspapers and magazines, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Times (London), Newsday, The National Interest, Post-Soviet Affairs, and the Times Literary Supplement. A frequent guest on television and radio talk shows, he has commented on Russian affairs on 60 Minutes, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Charlie Rose, CNN International, C-Span, and NPR’s All Things Considered and Talk of the Nation.
Janusz Bugajski is director of East European studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is the recipient in 1998 of the Distinguished Public Service Award, a distinction presented by the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. His books include Cold Peace: Russia’s New Imperialism (Praeger/Greenwood, 2004), Political Parties in Eastern Europe: A Guide to Politics in the Post-Communist Era (M. E. Sharpe, 2002), Ethnic Politics in Eastern Europe: A Guide to Nationality Policies, Organizations, and Parties (M. E. Sharpe, 1994), Nations in Turmoil: Conflict and Cooperation in Eastern Europe (Westview Press, 1993), East European Fault Lines: Dissent, Opposition, and Social Activism (Westview Press, 1989), and Czechoslovakia: Charter 77's Decade of Dissent (Praeger/CSIS, 1987). He chairs South Central Europe Area Studies at the Foreign Service Institute and has conducted consultancy work for the U.S. Department of Defense, USAID, the original International Republican Institute, the Free Trade Union Institute (AFL-CIO), the RAND Corporation, the International Research and Exchanges Board, the 21st Century Foundation, and several other private organizations and foundations. He is a columnist for the political weekly Nacional in Zagreb, Croatia; the daily Albania in Tirana, Albania; the weekly Koha Ditore in Pristina, Kosova; and the Bulgarian weeklies Kapital and Trud in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Nicholas Eberstadt is the Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy at AEI and senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research. He serves on the advisory board of the Korea Economic Institute of America and is a founding member of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights. Mr. Eberstadt regularly consults for governmental and international organizations, including the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. State Department, USAID, and World Bank. In 2006, he was appointed to the President’s Council on Bioethics. He has published over 300 studies and articles in scholarly and popular journals, mainly on topics in demography, international development, and East Asian security. His dozen-plus books and monographs include The Poverty of Communism (Transaction, 1988), The Population of North Korea (Institute for East Asian Studies, 1992), The Tyranny of Numbers (AEI Press, 1995), The End of North Korea (AEI Press, 1999), Korea's Future and the Great Power (National Bureau of Asian Research, 2001) and the forthcoming North Korea's Economy Between Crisis and Catastrophe (Transaction Books).
Reuel Marc Gerecht is a resident fellow studying Middle East affairs at AEI. Since 9/11, he has focused on Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as on terrorism and intelligence. He is the author of Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997) and The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy (AEI Press, 2004). He is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, as well as a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and other publications. Mr. Gerecht formerly held positions as the director of the Middle East Initiative for the Project for the New American Century and as a Middle Eastern specialist in the Central Intelligence Agency.
Frederick W. Kagan is a resident scholar in defense and security policy studies at AEI. Previously he was an associate professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He is the coauthor of While America Sleeps: Self-Delusion, Military Weakness, and the Threat to Peace Today (St. Martin’s Press, 2000) and has written numerous articles on defense and foreign policy issues for the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Weekly Standard, Policy Review, Commentary, Parameters, and other periodicals. His book Finding the Target (Encounter Books), an examination of military transformation, will be published later this year.
Jacqueline Newmyer is a research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She joined the Belfer Center after completing a yearlong postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. She previous worked as a consultant to the Office of Net Assessment in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Ms. Newmyer is especially interested in Chinese strategy and doctrine, and is currently researching the effects of domestic development on the People’s Republic of China’s security posture. Ms. Newmyer’s work has appeared in the journal War in History, the New York Times, Policy Review, and The Weekly Standard, among other publications.
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.
Kenneth Pollack is an expert on Middle Eastern political-military affairs, with particular emphasis on Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Persian Gulf region. He is currently a senior fellow and director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Pollack began his career as an Iran-Iraq military analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where he was an employee from 1988 until 1995. During that time, he was the principal author of the CIA’s classified postmortem on Iraqi strategy and military operations during the Persian Gulf War of 1990–1991. Mr. Pollack received the CIA’s Certificate of Distinction for Outstanding Performance of Duty for work both before and during the Persian Gulf War. He also twice received the CIA’s Exceptional Performance award, also for work related to the Persian Gulf War. Mr. Pollack has twice served on the staff of the National Security Council, as both director for Near East and South Asian Affairs and director for Persian Gulf Affairs. In this latter capacity, he was the principal working-level official at the White House for U.S. policy toward Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and the Gulf Cooperation Council States. Mr. Pollack’s most recent book is The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America (Random House, 2004).
Michael Rubin is a resident scholar in foreign policy studies at AEI, where he studies Arab democracy, Kurdish society, and domestic politics in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. Prior to joining AEI, he served as a political advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad from 2003 to 2004. Previously, he was a staff advisor for Iran and Iraq in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during 2002–2004. He is currently the editor of the Middle East Quarterly.
Gary Schmitt is a resident scholar and director of AEI’s Program on Advanced Strategic Studies. Prior to coming to AEI, he helped found and served as executive director of the Project for the New American Century, a Washington-based foreign and defense policy think tank. In the early 1980s, Dr. Schmitt was a member of the professional staff of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and, from 1982–1984, served as the committee’s minority staff director. In 1984, he was appointed by President Reagan to the post of executive director of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the White House. Dr. Schmitt has written books and articles about a number of topics, including the American founding, the U.S. presidency, the American political system, intelligence and national security affairs.
Randall Schriver is a founding partner of Armitage International LLC and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He previously served as deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 2003–2005, and as chief of staff and senior policy advisor to deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage from 2001–2003. Prior to his work at the State Department, he was an independent consultant and a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as a presidential management fellow from 1994–1998. Mr. Schriver has also served as an active-duty naval intelligence officer and was in the Navy reserves. He served on the Bush-Cheney Defense Transition Team and was a member of the Asia Policy Team for the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign. He has won numerous military and civilian awards from the U.S. government and was recently presented with the Order of the Propitious Clouds by the president of Taiwan for promoting U.S.-Taiwan relations.
Stephen Sestanovich is the George F. Kennan senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis professor of international diplomacy at Columbia University. From 1997–2001, he served as ambassador-at-large and special adviser to the secretary of state for the new independent states. In this capacity, he was the State Department’s principal officer responsible for policy toward the states of the former Soviet Union. Prior to joining the State Department, Ambassador Sestanovich worked at two of Washington’s leading public policy research organizations. From 1994–97, he was vice president for Russian and Eurasian affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. From 1987–94, he was director of Soviet and East European Studies (later Russian and Eurasian studies) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. From 1984–87, Ambassador Sestanovich served as senior director for policy development at the National Security Council. He was a member of the State Department’s policy planning staff from 1981–84 and senior legislative assistant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan from 1980–81. He is coauthor or editor of several volumes on international affairs, and has contributed articles to the National Interest, Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other publications. In addition, he is a member of the advisory board of the National Interest.
Judy Van Rest has served as executive vice president for the International Republican Institute (IRI) since August 2004. From April 14, 2003, to July 1, 2004, she served as senior advisor for governance for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad. She also served as the CPA's director of the Office of Democratic Initiatives. Ms. Van Rest was appointed to the Peace Corps as chief information officer and associate director for management in September 2001, in which capacities she was responsible for formulating policies and implementing operation plans for both domestic and overseas Peace Corps missions. She became regional director for the Europe, Mediterranean, and Asia Region in 2002. Prior to her work with the Peace Corps, Ms. Van Rest served as regional director for the Commonwealth of Independent States programs for IRI, one of the core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy. She participated in observer missions for national and local elections in Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Mongolia and conducted political party seminars in Russia, Kazakhstan, and the Kyrgyz Republic. Previously, Ms. Van Rest served as chief of staff for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and held management positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Republican National Committee.
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