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.
Senator Joseph Lieberman (ID-Conn.) was elected to the Connecticut State Senate in 1970 and served there for ten years, including the last six as majority leader. In 1980, he returned to private legal practice for two years, and from 1983 through 1988, he served as Connecticut’s twenty-first attorney general. Senator Lieberman was first elected to the United States Senate in 1988. He is chairman and former ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He is currently a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, for which he is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection. He is also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, for which he is ranking member of the Subcommittee on Air-Land Forces, and sits on the Personnel and Sea Power Subcommittees and the Small Business Committee.
Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) graduated from the Naval Academy in 1958, after which he began his career as a naval aviator. In 1982, he was elected to Congress, representing what was then the First Congressional District of Arizona. In 1986, he was elected to the United States Senate to take the place of Arizona senator Barry Goldwater. Senator McCain is currently the senior senator from Arizona and the ranking membr of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. He also serves on the Senate Committees on Armed Services and Indian Affairs.
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