About Us
Bob Killebrew Gary Schmitt Chris Griffin Kimberly Kagan
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.
Robert Killebrew
Robert Killebrew served over 30
years in the Army in both the infantry and special operations. He served two combat tours in Vietnam and commanded at all
levels through brigade. During his distinguished career he participated in some of the Army's most progressive initiatives
for determining the future role of landpower. He was a member of the Chief of Staff's special study group and an instructor
at the Army War College. At Training and Doctrine Command he was the principal deputy to the TRADOC Commander for the Army
After Next effort. This program set the course for all of the Army's major transformational programs to include the Future
Combat System and Modularity. After retirement he became a consultant for academic, defense and industrial institutions.
He worked for Toffler and Associates and was a member of the Hart – Rudman Commission on National Security. He also has
served as an advisor for DARPA and other defense intellectual bodies. He is a frequent media contributor to the Washington
Post, Fox News, NPR, and most major networks. Killebrew graduated from the Citadel in 1965 and holds a master's degrees in
both history and international relations. He is a noted lecturer and expert on future war and strategic leadership. He
resides in Newport News Virginia. Colonel Killibrew has conducted staff rides for the U.S. military as well for a number
of businesses.
Gary Schmitt
is a resident scholar
and director of the American Enterprise Institute's Program on Advanced Strategic Studies. Prior to coming to AEI, he
helped found and served as executive director of the Project for the New American Century, a Washington-based foreign and
defense policy think tank. While in government, Dr. Schmitt served on the professional staff of the Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence from 1981-1984 and served as Minority Staff Director of the Senate Committee from 1982-84. Then, from
1984-88, he worked in the Executive Office of the President, serving as executive director of President Reagan's Foreign
Intelligence Advisory Board, a commissioned position. After leaving government, Dr. Schmitt held fellowships at the National
Interest, Brookings, and the National Strategy Information Center. In the latter capacity, he led a program on intelligence
reform for the Center’s Consortium on the Study of Intelligence. He co-authored, with Abram N. Shulsky, the Consortium's
monograph "The Future of US Intelligence" (1996). In addition, Dr. Schmitt was a consultant to the Department of Defense from
1992-1993, and has taught courses on intelligence and national security at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International
Studies, at Johns Hopkins University. Before coming to Washington, Dr. Schmitt was a member of the University of Virginia
faculty from 1977-1979, working as a research associate at the White Burkett Miller Center's “Program on the American
Presidency.” And, in 1980, he was field director and deputy campaign manager for the “Tom Pauken for Congress” campaign.
Pauken was the GOP candidate for the 5th Congressional District, Texas.
Chris Griffin
is a research
associate in Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing editor for Armed Forces Journal.
Before moving to AEI in January 2005, he was a research assistant at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced
International Studies (SAIS), where he researched American strategy as it developed between the Revolutionary War and the
Civil War.
Kimberly Kagan
is a Senior
Fellow and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, a Visiting
Fellow at Yale International Security Studies, and an affiliate of Harvard's John M. Olin Institute of Strategic Studies.
She has taught military history, international security, great books, and classical civilization at West Point, Yale,
Georgetown, and American University. Dr. Kagan's first book, The Eye of Command (University of Michigan Press, 2006),
critiques “face of battle” military history by analyzing the battle narratives of Roman soldier-historians such as Julius
Caesar. She has edited The Beginnings of Empires (under contract, Harvard University Press), a collection of new essays
that explore the process by which powerful states have become empires and evaluate whether America is currently an empire
or becoming an empire. Her next book, Rome and America: Grand Strategic Lessons for Global Powers (under contract with
Encounter Books) draws useful lessons from Roman history that policy makers can apply to contemporary United States foreign
policy. She has also been exploring the origins, development, and changes in Roman grand strategy in a forthcoming book
entitled Grand Strategy in the Later Roman Empire and an article, “Redefining Roman Grand Strategy,” in The Journal of
Military History (April 2006). Dr. Kagan held an Olin Postdoctoral Fellowship in Military History at Yale International
Security Studies in 2004-2005 and was a National Security Fellow at Harvard’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies in
2002-2003. She received her B.A. and Ph.D. from Yale.