Speaker biographies
Mauro De Lorenzo is a resident fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at AEI, where he studies private sector–based approaches to development in post-conflict and post-socialist countries; Chinese investment and political influence outside the Pacific region, particularly in Africa; and democratic accountability in aid-receiving countries. In 2005, he worked as a consultant to Afghan construction companies in Kabul, and prior to that he 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 the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, and Burundi. In 2002, he researched and was associate producer of The Price of Aid, a BBC documentary about U.S. food aid to Africa.
Thomas Donnelly is a resident fellow in defense and security policy studies at AEI. He is the coeditor, with Gary J. Schmitt, of Of Men and Materiel: The Crisis in Military Resources (AEI Press, 2007), and he is also the author of The Military We Need (AEI Press, 2005), Operation Iraqi Freedom: A Strategic Assessment (AEI Press, 2004), and several other books. From 1995 to 1999, he was policy group director and a professional staff member for the Committee on Armed Services of the U.S. House of Representatives. He also served as a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He is a former editor of Armed Forces Journal, Army Times, and Defense News.
Lt. Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae is the chief executive officer at the Center for Policy Research and Dialogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Lt. Gen. Tsadkan served as a senior member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, playing a crucial role in building and commanding the liberation army. He was the chief of general staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces from 1991 to 2001. During this period he transitioned the liberation army of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front into a conventional national defense force and commanded the armed forces in the war against Eritrea. More recently, he has written on constitutional issues related to the building of a new army in Ethiopia, HIV/AIDS and the armed forces, and military strategy and tactics. He is currently advising on the transformation of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army.
General James Jamerson (Ret.) is vice president for the Middle East and Africa region of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. He served as deputy commander in chief of U.S. European Command, Stuttgart, Germany. General Jamerson was also commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and of the Allied Air Forces in Central Europe. He has commanded two Air Force fighter wings, a joint task force during Operation Desert Storm, and a combined task force for humanitarian operations in Turkey and Iraq. He has served at the Pentagon, on NATO staff at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, and as an air combat command Air Force commander. He is a command pilot, having flown more than five thousand hours, principally in attack and fighter aircraft.
James Kimonyo is the ambassador of Rwanda to the United States. He is also the nonresident ambassador to Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. Prior to his current appointment, he was Rwanda’s ambassador to South Africa and nonresident ambassador to Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Lesotho, and Namibia. Prior to his diplomatic career, he served as governor of Kibungo and Butare provinces. As governor, he was directly involved in efforts to enhance peace and stability at the provincial level, as well as facilitating the unity and reconciliation process. He has also been actively involved in resettlement programs former Rwandan refugees. He served as director of resettlement at the Ministry of Home Affairs and was country director for Rwanda at UN Habitat for Humanity with the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement.
Lt. Gen. Daniel I. Opande of Kenya has served as force commander of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone and the United Nations Mission in Liberia. Lt. Gen. Opande served as deputy force commander of the United Nations Transitional Assistance Group in Namibia from 1989 to 1990. He represented Kenya in the Mozambican peace process as a negotiator between the Mozambican National Resistance and the government of Mozambique from 1990 to 1993, and he was chief military observer of the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia from 1993 to 1995. He has also served as commandant of the National Defense College, Kenya’s highest military institution, and as vice chief of staff of the Kenyan Army.
Brownie J. Samukai Jr. is the Liberian minister of national defense. Before assuming this post in January 2006, Mr. Samukai served as the principal security advisor to the United Nations Designated Official in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He also served as the principal security advisor to the head of the sub-office for United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees in Kibondo, Tanzania, where he was responsible for the safety and security of nearly 130,000 refugees. Prior to that, he was security advisor to the regional officer for the Emera Region in East Timor, where he led the safe evacuation of over 120 UN staff and dependents during the uprising after the 2000 elections. Mr. Samukai served as the Liberian deputy minister of state for administration from 1995 to 1997 and as director of the Liberian national police from 1994 to 1995. From 1991 to 1994, he was deputy minister of defense for operations, responsible for reestablishing civilian control of the Liberian army and establishing an emergency response team to counter urban terrorism.
Michael L. Smith is coordinator for AFRICOM at the U.S. Department of State. He also serves as the deputy program director for the President’s Global Peace Operations Initiative and as the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs Africa Peace and Security Affairs subject matter expert. Prior to that he was the U.S. advisor to the African Union (AU) for Darfur Crisis Planning, where he liaised with the AU Commission in Addis Ababa for the planning of the AU Mission in Darfur. He also served as the senior joint and army doctrine advisor to the U.S. Nigeria Civil-Military Assistance Program. Prior to that he was U.S. Army Colonel for twenty-four years, during which he worked as a strategist and foreign area officer for sub-Saharan Africa.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield is the principal deputy assistant secretary for African affairs at the U.S. State Department. Prior to that, she served as deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration from June 2004 to January 2006. Ms. Thomas-Greenfield is a career member of the senior foreign service at the counselor level. Her Africa-focused assignments have included Nigeria, the Gambia, and Kenya. Ms. Thomas-Greenfield was the 2000 recipient of the Warren Christopher Award for Outstanding Achievement in Global Affairs. She is also the recipient of superior, meritorious, and performance awards during her career. From 2003 to 2004, she was a member of and president of the forty-sixth Senior Seminar, the State Department’s most prestigious senior development program.
Theresa Whelan currently serves as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for African affairs at the Defense Department. Her office is responsible for Department of Defense policy for all of sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to her current position, Ms. Whelan served as director of the office of African affairs for two years. From June 1998 to November 2000, she was assigned to the under secretary of defense for policy’s Balkans Task Force, at which she served first as the NATO team chief on the task force during the Kosovo crisis and then as the task force deputy chief of staff. She was also a Defense Department representative on the U.S. negotiating team at the Kosovo talks in Rambouillet, France, and Paris from February to March 1999. Ms. Whelan was senior program director for the US/South Africa Joint Defense Committee from January to August 1997, countries director for southern Africa from January 1994 to January 1997, and countries director for west Africa from September 1991 to January 1994.
Brig. Gen. Robert Winful is chief of staff of the Ghana Armed Forces. He is a veteran in peacekeeping operations, having served with the United Nations Emergency Force II, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, and the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia as a military observer. He was the Ghanaian contingent commander with the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His former appointments in the Ghana Armed Forces include assistant director of military operations, assistant chief of staff, military adviser to the chief of defense, commanding officer of the Armed Forces Recruit Training School, and director of Army operations, Army headquarters. Brig. Gen. Winful has also served as the director of research and development and deputy commandant of the Ghana Military Academy and Training School. He assumed his present appointment as chief of staff, General Headquarters, in April 2006.
Paul Wolfowitz is a visiting scholar in foreign and defense policy studies at AEI, where he studies development issues. He has spent more than three decades in public service and higher education. Most recently, he served as president of the World Bank and deputy secretary of defense. Prior to that, he was dean and professor of international relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He has also served as under secretary of defense for policy, 1989–1993, and U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, 1986–1989. He was the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, 1982–1986, and director of policy planning at the Department of State. He worked as deputy assistant secretary of defense for regional programs at the Department of Defense, and as special assistant to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1973–1977.
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