Speaker biographies
Ann Gildroy is a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps Individual Ready Reserve (IRR). She recently returned from her third tour of duty in the south of Iraq, where she worked with the 8th Iraqi Army Division and local tribes in an effort to employ counterinsurgency tactics. Her team reported directly to General David Petraeus. Her previous missions in Iraq included assessments of the Iraq/Iran border along Wassit Province and efforts to help the Iraqi Security Forces in southern Iraq incorporate the army, police, and border forces.
Frederick W. Kagan is a resident scholar in defense and security policy studies at AEI. He is the author (with Thomas Donnelly) of the forthcoming book Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power (AEI Press, May 2008), as well as Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq (phases I and II), No Middle Way: The Challenge of Exit Strategies from Iraq, and Iraq: The Way Forward, reports by the Iraq Planning Group 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, Mr. Kagan 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, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Policy Review, Commentary magazine, Parameters, and other periodicals.
Edward Pietrzyk is the Polish ambassador to Iraq, a position he has held since April 2007. He served previously as the commander of Poland’s land forces. He was responsible for establishing NATO’s Multinational Corps Northeast in 1998 and later became its deputy commander. Ambassador Pietrzyk served as chief and deputy chief of the Operational Directorate of the Polish General Staff and as commander and deputy commander of the Artillery and Rocket Forces of the Polish Armed Forces.
Gary J. Schmitt is a resident scholar at AEI, where he is director of the 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. Previously, Mr. Schmitt was a member of the professional staff of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and served as the committee’s minority staff director. In 1984, he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the post of executive director of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board at the White House. Mr. Schmitt is the coeditor, with Thomas Donnelly, of Of Men and Materiel: The Crisis in Military Resources (AEI Press, 2007). Mr. Schmitt has written books and articles on a number of topics, including the American founding, the U.S. presidency, intelligence, and national security affairs.
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