Michael Auslin, AEI's director of Japan studies, specializes in U.S.-East Asian relations, Asian maritime security, and Japanese foreign and security policy. Prior to joining AEI, Mr. Auslin was an associate professor of history and a senior research fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. He has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, a Marshall Memorial Fellow by the German Marshall Fund, and a Fulbright and Japan Foundation Scholar. His writings on Japan and Japanese diplomacy include the books Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy and Japan Society: Celebrating a Century, 1907–2007, and the report Securing Freedom: The U.S.-Japanese Alliance in a New Era.

Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) was elected to serve a second term in the U.S. Senate in 2008. Senator Chambliss is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Senate Rules Committee; he is the ranking Republican member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. During the 109th Congress, Senator Chambliss served as chairman of that committee and, according to the Congressional Research Service, is the only senator since 1947 to have chaired a full-standing Senate committee after serving in the Senate for just two years. Senator Chambliss was first elected to Congress in 1994, representing Georgia's Eighth Congressional District. During his four terms in the House, he was instrumental in drafting two farm bills and reforming the federal crop insurance program through his chairmanship of the Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management. Senator Chambliss has been honored with numerous awards from both the private and public sector for his work in the fields of agriculture, defense, budget, and national security. In May 2006, he was honored with the CIA Director's Award, the agency's highest honor, for his "extraordinary fidelity and essential service" to the CIA. In 2008, he was the recipient of the National Guard Association’s distinguished Harry S. Truman Award, which is given to civilian and military leaders who demonstrate continued contributions to national defense and security.

Thomas Donnelly is a resident fellow in defense and security policy studies at AEI. He is the author, with Frederick W. Kagan, of Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power (AEI Press, May 2008); the coeditor, with Gary J. Schmitt, of Of Men and Materiel: The Crisis in Military Resources (AEI Press, 2007); and 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 House Armed Services Committee. Mr. Donnelly 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.

Frederick W. Kagan is a resident scholar in defense and security policy studies at AEI. His most recent book, Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power (AEI Press), which he coauthored with AEI resident fellow Thomas Donnelly, was published in May 2008. Previously an associate professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he is the author of Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy (Encounter Books, 2006) and 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, Parameters, and other periodicals.

Danielle Pletka is the vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at AEI. Her research areas include the Middle East, South Asia, terrorism, and weapons proliferation. Before coming to AEI, Ms. Pletka served for ten years as a senior professional staff member for the Near East and South Asia on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Since joining AEI, Ms. Pletka has developed a conference series on rebuilding post-Saddam Iraq, directed a project on democracy in the Arab world, and designed a project to track global business in Iran. She was a member of the congressionally mandated U.S. Institute of Peace Task Force on the United Nations, which released its final report in 2005. She recently coedited Dissent and Reform in the Arab World: Empowering Democrats (AEI Press, 2008) and coauthored the 2008 AEI report Iranian Influence in the Levant, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

David J. Trachtenberg is an independent consultant in national security affairs. From 2005 to 2007, he was a vice president of CACI International and division manager of the Strategic Analysis Division at CACI-NSR. From 2003 to 2005, he was senior vice president for homeland security and senior vice president for corporate support at National Security Research. From 2001 to 2003, Mr. Trachtenberg was principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, where his office initiated successful efforts to restructure NATO, develop the Proliferation Security Initiative, and foster closer relationships with Russia and the former Soviet states. Concurrently, he was acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for forces policy, overseeing the office that led the development of the Nuclear Posture Review and the New Triad concept and provided policy rationale leading to the withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and deployment of an initial national missile defense capability. From 1995 to 2001, Mr. Trachtenberg was a senior professional staff member on the House Armed Services Committee. Prior to this, he was a member of the technical staff of the Analytical Sciences Corporation, a consultant to the president’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament, a senior defense analyst for the Committee on the Present Danger, and a research associate with the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis. Mr. Trachtenberg is widely published and has served on various boards, task forces, and commissions.