Speaker biographies

Frederick W. Kagan is a resident scholar in defense and security policy studies at AEI. His most recent book, Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy (Encounter Books), was published in September 2006. Previously an associate professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he is the author of The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801–1805 (Da Capo, 2006) and coauthor of While America Sleeps: Self-Delusion, Military Weakness, and the Threat to Peace Today (St. Martin’s Press, 2000). A contributing editor at The Weekly Standard, he has also written numerous articles on defense and foreign policy issues for Foreign Affairs, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Policy Review, Commentary, Parameters, and other periodicals.

General Jack Keane is senior managing director and co-founder of Keane Advisors, LLC, a private equity and consulting firm. He serves as a national security analyst for ABC News and speaks throughout the nation on national security and leadership. Still active in national security, General Keane conducted a personal assessment of the security situation in Iraq for senior defense officials in 2004 and 2005, and will conduct another assessment in 2006. He has been elected to the board of directors of MetLife, General Dynamics, and Allied Barton Security. He is a senior advisor to Kholberg, Kravis and Roberts, one of the nation’s largest private equity firms. He is also an advisor to the chairman & CEO of URS Corporation. He is a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board, a commissioner for one year on the Congressional Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, director of the George C. Marshall Foundation, director of the Knollwood Foundation, a member of the Executive Committee of the Pentagon Memorial Fund, chairman of the Terry Maude Foundation, and chairman of Senior Executive Committee of the Army Aviation Association of America. General Keane, a four-star general, completed thirty-seven years in public service in December 2003, culminating as acting chief of staff and vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army. As the chief operating officer of the Army for 4 1/2 years, he directed 1.5 million soldiers and civilians in 120 countries, with an annual operating budget of $110 billion. General Keane was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and provided oversight and support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. General Keane is a career paratrooper and a combat veteran of Vietnam who was decorated for valor and spent much of his military life in operational commands employed in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo. He commanded the famed 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and the legendary 18th Airborne Corps, the Army’s largest war fighting organization.

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. 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).

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