Speaker biographies

Nathan Brown is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. He was previously a scholar in residence at the Middle East Institute and served as a member of international advisory committees that have helped draft the Iraqi and Palestinian constitutions. He has also acted as a consultant to the United Nations Development Program’s plan to advance governance in the Arab world. He is the author of several books, including Resuming Arab Palestine (University of California Press, 2003), Constitutions in a Non-Constitutional World: Arab Basic Laws and Prospects for Accountable Governments (SUNY Press, 2001), and The Rule of Law in the Arab World: Courts in Egypt and the Arab States of the Gulf (Cambridge University Press, 1997).

James F. Dobbins is the director of the RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center. He has also served as the assistant secretary of state for Europe, special advisor to the president and secretary of state for the Balkans, and ambassador to the European community. As an expert in crisis management, Ambassador Dobbins was assigned by President Clinton to be the special envoy for Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia. He also served under the first Bush administration as the representative to the Afghan opposition in the wake of September 11. Earlier in his career at the State Department, he acted as the deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe, as the deputy chief of mission in Germany, and as the acting assistant secretary of state for Europe.

Michael Eisenstadt is a senior fellow and director of the Military and Security Studies Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He is also a reserve officer in the United States Army, in which he served on active duty at CENTCOM and on the joint staff during the planning for Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2000–2001. He also acted as an advisor to the Department of State’s Future of Iraq Defense Policy working group. Prior to his work at the Washington Institute, Mr. Eisenstadt worked as a civilian military analyst with the United States Army. He is an expert in Persian Gulf and Arab-Israeli security affairs and has published numerous articles and monographs on U.S. strategy in the Middle East, regional security, and the armed forces of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority.

Reuel Marc Gerecht is a resident fellow at AEI. An expert in Middle East affairs, he researches Iran, Afghanistan, central Asia, and the former Soviet Union, as well as terrorism and intelligence. He is the author of Know Thine Enemy: A Spy’s Journey into Revolutionary Iran (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1997) and a chapter on Iran in Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy (Encounter Books, 2000). He is also a regular contributor to The Weekly Standard, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and International Herald Tribune, among other publications. He formerly held positions as director of the Middle East Initiative for the Project for the New American Century and as a Middle Eastern specialist for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Frederick W. Kagan joined AEI in May 2005 as a resident scholar in defense and security policy studies. Previously he was an associate professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He is the coauthor of While America Sleeps: Self-Delusion, Military Weakness, and the Threat to Peace Today (St. Martin’s Press, 2000), and has written numerous articles on defense and foreign policy issues for the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Weekly Standard, Policy Review, Commentary, Parameters, and elsewhere. His book Finding the Target (Encounter Books), an examination of military transformation, will come out later this year.

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