Speaker Biographies

September 20, 2005

Lee Feinstein is deputy director of studies and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His areas of expertise include nonproliferation, the United Nations, and international law. His recent works include "The UN Panel Report and Conditional Sovereignty" in the American Society of International Law Newsletter (January-February 2005) and "A Duty to Prevent" in Foreign Affairs (with Anne-Marie Slaughter, January-February 2004). Mr. Feinstein codirects a roundtable on global governance with the American Society of International Law and directed a 2002 independent task force on enhancing U.S. relations with the UN. He served in senior positions at the Departments of Defense and State from 1994 to 2001, including as principal deputy director of the policy planning staff under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. He is admitted to the practice of law in New York and Washington, D.C.

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick is a senior fellow at AEI. She was a professor of government at Georgetown University, where she held the Leavey chair from 1967 to 2002. She was the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and a member of President Ronald Reagan's cabinet and National Security Council. She has served on various commissions on national security, including the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1986-1992), Defense Policy Review Board (1985-1993), and Presidential Commissions on Space and on Nuclear Weapons. She also headed the U.S. delegation to the Human Rights Commission in 2003. She was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1985. She serves on the boards of Freedom House, UN Watch, Empower America, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and numerous other organizations. She is the author of numerous books and articles, including Good Intentions: Making War to Keep the Peace (2004).

Mark P. Lagon is deputy assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs. His responsibilities include administering UN-related human rights and humanitarian policy, reform, and the IO Bureau’s public diplomacy and outreach programs. He served as a member of the secretary of state’s policy planning staff (2002-2004) and as a senior staff member of the Republican staff at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) He was also a fellow at the Project for the New American Century (1998-1999); deputy staff director of the House Republican Policy Committee (1997-1998); and committee senior analyst (1995-1998). He is the author of The Reagan Doctrine: Sources of American Conduct in the Cold War’s Last Chapter (Praeger, 1994).

Joshua Muravchik is a resident scholar at AEI and a specialist in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. He has written extensively about democracy, human rights, the role of ideas and ideologies in international politics, and America’s role in the post–Cold War world. His articles appear frequently in Commentary, The New Republic, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal. His newest book, The Future of the United Nations: Understanding the Past to Chart a Way Forward, was published in September 2005 by the AEI Press. He is also the author of Covering the Intifada: How the Media Reported the Palestinian Uprising (Washington Institute for Near East Policy 2003); Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism (Encounter Books 2002); The Imperative of American Leadership (AEI Press 1996); Exporting Democracy: Fulfilling America’s Destiny (AEI Press 1991); News Coverage of the Sandinista Revolution (University Press of America 1988); and The Uncertain Crusade: Jimmy Carter and the Dilemmas of Human Rights Policy (Hamilton Press 1986). He serves as an adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and is an adjunct professor at the Institute of World Politics.

Vance Serchuk is a research fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at AEI, where he studies international organizations and the overlap between U.S. strategic interests and development policy. Previously, he was a research associate at AEI, coordinating its defense and security policy program. He has also worked as a consultant for the Project for the New American Century and the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. Before joining AEI, Mr. Serchuk was a Fulbright scholar in the Russian Federation. His writings have appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Weekly Standard, New York Sun, The Forward, and other publications.

Ruth Wedgwood is Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy and director of the International Law and Organization Program at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She is an internationally recognized expert on international crimes and tribunals, international law, peacekeeping, strategic and security issues, terrorism, U.S. Congress and foreign policy, the United Nations, and use of force. She is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an adviser to the U.S. Department of Defense on the issue of military tribunals in response to the September 11 crisis. She also is the incoming director of studies at The Hague Academy for International Law in the Netherlands and formerly served on the board of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. She has published various articles in the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and New York Times, and is the coauthor of Toward an International Criminal Court? (1999).

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