Speaker biographies
J. Scott Carpenter is deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, responsible for overseeing the Middle East Partnership Initiative. Prior to joining the U.S. Department of State, Mr. Carpenter served as the director of the Governance Group for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), helping to guide Iraq’s political transition and to initiate a wide array of democracy initiatives. From May 2003 to July 2004, he served as a key advisor to the CPA administrator, facilitating the formation of the Iraqi Governing Council and the first post-Saddam cabinet, the drafting and signing of the Transitional Administrative Law (Iraq’s interim constitution), and the establishment of Iraq’s first fully sovereign government. He also presided over the design and implementation of the largest democratization effort in one country since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Before joining the State Department, Mr. Carpenter worked with the International Republican Institute.
Mauro De Lorenzo is a resident fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at AEI, where he studies entrepreneurship in developing countries as well as Chinese investment and political influence outside the Pacific region. In 2005, he worked with Afghan construction companies in Kabul, and prior to that 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 Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. In 2002-03, he researched and was associate producer of a BBC documentary film about U.S. food aid to Africa and the misdiagnosis of famine.
Gareth Evans is president and chief executive officer of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG). ICG is an independent, multinational nongovernmental organization that works through field-based analysis and high-level policy advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict. From 1988–96, he served as Australia’s foreign minister, and has held a variety of other cabinet posts as well. A member of the Australian Parliament for twenty-one years, he served as senator, deputy leader, leader of the government, and a member of the House of Representatives. In 2000–01, he was co-chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, appointed by the government of Canada, which published its report, The Responsibility to Protect, in December 2001. He is currently chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Governance Initiative Peace and Security Expert Group.
William Kristol is editor of The Weekly Standard. Widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading political analysts and commentators, Mr. Kristol regularly appears on Fox News Sunday and on the Fox News Channel. Before starting The Weekly Standard in 1995, Mr. Kristol led the Project for the Republican Future, where he helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican Congressional victory. Prior to that, Mr. Kristol served as chief of staff to both Vice President Dan Quayle during the Bush administration and to Secretary of Education William Bennett under President Ronald Reagan. Before coming to Washington in 1985, Mr. Kristol taught politics at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Kristol recently coauthored the New York Times bestseller The War over Iraq: America’s Mission and Saddam’s Tyranny (Encounter Books, 2003) and is the editor of The Weekly Standard: A Reader (HarperCollins, 2005).
Judy Van Rest has served as executive vice president for the International Republican Institute (IRI) since August 2004. From April 2003 to July 2004, she was 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 of the Peace Corps 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 was 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.
View Event Details
