Speaker Biographies

Dan Blumenthal joined AEI in November 2004 as a resident fellow in Asian studies. Previously, he was senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for international security affairs during the first George W. Bush administration. In that capacity, he led a team that formulated and implemented defense policies and programs toward, and for, these portfolio countries. Before his service at the Department of Defense, Mr. Blumenthal practiced law in New York and was a research assistant at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

John R. Bolton currently serves as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His portfolio includes foreign policy and international organizations. Prior to arriving at AEI, Ambassador Bolton served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 1, 2005, to December 9, 2006. From May 2001 to May 2005, Ambassador Bolton served as under secretary of state for arms control and international security, also in the Bush administration. Prior to this, Ambassador Bolton was senior vice president of the AEI. He supervised the AEI research program, financial oversight, dissemination of AEI research and publications, public affairs, and general management. Ambassador Bolton has spent many years of his career in public service. He has previously been assistant secretary for international organization affairs, Department of State, 1989–1993; assistant attorney general, Department of Justice, 1985–1989; assistant administrator for program and policy coordination, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), 1982–1983; general counsel, USAID, 1981–1982. Ambassador Bolton is also an attorney. He was an associate at the Washington office of Covington & Burling, and then a member of the firm from 1983 to 1985.

Nicholas Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at AEI and is senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research in Seattle, Washington. He serves on the advisory board of the Korea Economic Institute of America, and is a founding member of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Mr. Eberstadt regularly consults for governmental and international organizations, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. State Department, USAID, and the World Bank. He has published over 300 studies and articles in scholarly and popular journals, mainly on topics in demography, international development, and East Asian security. His dozen-plus books and monographs include The Poverty of Communism (Transaction, 1988), The Population of North Korea (Institute of East Asian Studies, 1992), The Tyranny of Numbers (AEI Press, 1995), The End of North Korea (AEI Press, 1999), Korea's Future and the Great Powers (National Bureau of Asian Research, 2001) and, most recently, The North Korean Economy: Between Crisis & Catastrophe (Transaction, 2007).

Christopher Griffin is a research associate in Asian studies at AEI. Before joining AEI in January 2005, he was a research assistant in the strategic studies department at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Since May 2006, Mr. Griffin has been an associate editor of Armed Forces Journal, for which he writes on defense-industrial issues and military blogs.

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