About Us
Thomas G. Mahnken Gary Schmitt
Dan Blumenthal
is a resident fellow in Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. 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.
Mr. Blumenthal is Vice Chairman of the Congressionally-mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in
February 2006. A Graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies' Strategic Studies Program,
Mr. Blumenthal has a decade's worth of experience leading and organizing staff rides.
Thomas Donnelly
is a senior fellow
in Defense and National Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of "The Military We Need:
The Defense Requirements of the Bush Doctrine" (AEI Press, 2005), "Operation Iraqi Freedom: A Strategic Assessment" (AEI Press,
2004). He previously served as the director of strategic communications and initiatives at Lockheed Martin, and as deputy
executive director of the Project for the New American Century. From 1995 to 1999, he was the policy group director, as
well as a professional staff member, for the Committee on National Security (now the Committee on Armed Services) in the
U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Donnelly has also been the executive director of The National Interest, editor of the
Army Times, and deputy editor of Defense News. Mr. Donnelly has led over 100 staff rides over the past decade.
Raphael S. Cohen is currently a doctoral candidate and Stephen P. Gibert Fellow in the Government and Security Studies programs at Georgetown University. His research interests include civil-military relations, interstate coercion, military transformation, and counterinsurgency. Prior to attending Georgetown, Mr. Cohen was a junior researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, where he researched and wrote on a number of foreign and defense policy topics. Mr. Cohen previously served as an active duty infantry and intelligence officer with the United States Army's 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum, New York. He served two combat tours in Iraq, in Baghdad (from August 2005 to July 2006) and in Kirkuk (from September 2007 to October 2008). His final assignment on active duty was as a Battalion Intelligence Officer for the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment. He is a graduate of the United States Army's Infantry Officer Basic Course, Reserve Military Intelligence Captain's Career Course, and Airborne, Air Assault, and Ranger schools. He is currently a captain in the Army Reserve and serves with a strategic intelligence unit based in the Washington, DC area. Mr. Cohen graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University (A.B., Government). He was a Distinguished Military Graduate.
Thomas G. Mahnken
is currently a Professor of Strategy at the U.S. Naval War College and a Visiting Scholar at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at The Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Dr. Mahnken served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning from 2006-2009. In that capacity, he was responsible for the Department's major strategic planning functions, including the preparation of guidance for war plans and the development of the defense planning scenarios. He was the primary author of the 2008 National Defense Strategy and contributing author of the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review. An Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, he served as the Intelligence Plans Officer for Naval Special Warfare Task Group CENTRAL in Kuwait and Iraq during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. He served with British forces in Kosovo during Operation JOINT GUARDIAN/Operation AGRICOLA and in Bahrain during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. Dr. Mahnken earned his master's degree and doctorate in international affairs from SAIS and was a National Security Fellow at the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University. He was a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California with bachelor's degrees in history and international relations (with highest honors) and a certificate in defense and strategic studies.
Gary Schmitt
is resident scholar and director of the American Enterprise Institute's program on advanced strategic studies. A former staff director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he also served as executive director of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board during President Ronald Reagan's second term. In addition, Mr. Schmitt has worked as Executive Director, Project for the New American Century, 1997-2005, a consultant to the Department of Defense, a fellow at The National Interest, Brookings Institution, and National Strategy Information Center, and as a member of the research faculty, White Burkett Miller Center for Public Policy, University of Virginia, 1977-79. Mr. Schmitt is a leader in the teaching and research of strategic studies. He is a graduate of the University of Dallas (Politics, 1970) and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (Political Science, 1980). Mr. Schmitt has led dozens of staff rides over the past decade.