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Strategic Studies Speaker Series

Speakers Series provides a forum for practitioners and experts of foreign policy to interact with students to discuss salient national security issues of the day.  We aim to bring in 2-3 speakers each semester.  All the meetings are off the record.
 
Last semester, we held a panel discussion on "Guantanamo and the Conflict with Al Qaeda: Legal Norms, Human Rights, and National Security Considerations." Panelists include our own famed professor of International Law Ruth Wedgwood, Professor Ken Anderson of American University, who is also a National Security Task Force member of Stanford University's Hoover Institute, and Mr. Geoff, Loane, Head of the North American delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, an NGO with exclusive access to the prisoners of Guantanamo.
2007-2008 Speakers
In the Fall, the Speaker Series hosted a panel discussion on "Guantanamo and the Conflict with Al Qaeda: Legal Norms, Human Rights, and National Security Considerations" including:
 
Professor Ruth Wedgwood -- Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at SAIS
 
Professor Ken Anderson -- American University and National Security Task Force member of Stanford University's Hoover Institute
 
Mr. Geoff Loane -- Head of the North American delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross
 
Spring Semester Speakers will include:
 
Brigadier General Mark O'Neill -- Deputy Commandant of the Command and General Staff College and Acting Commander of Fort Leavenworth, U.S. Army
 
Mr. Eric Rosenbach -- Executive Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government
 
Previous Speakers

Dr. David Gordon -- Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council

Gen. Bryan "Doug" Brown -- U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Commander

Dr. Matthew Levitt -- Director of the Stein Program on Terrorism, Intelligence, and Policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Gen. Dan K. McNeill -- U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) Commander

Frank Carlucci -- Former Secretary of Defense

Peter Beinart -- Editor-at-Large at The New Republic

Jeffrey Nadaner -- Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Stability Operations

Amb. Thomas Pickering -- former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Career Ambassador

Kurt Campbell -- Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense.

Dr. Eliot Cohen -- Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies, SAIS, and
Mr. John McLaughlin -- former Deputy and Acting Director of Central Intelligence.

Jon Nowick -- Director of Analytic Red Cell Program, DHS.

Tom Corcoran -- Senior Policy Advisor with the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Lt. Col. Roger Carstens -- Lieutenant Colonel Carstens serves with the U.S. Army, Special Forces.

Geoff Odium -- Mr. Odium is with the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Nonproliferation Affairs.

Kurt M. Campbell -- Mr. Campbell is senior vice president, director of the International Security Program, and holder of the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in National Security at CSIS.

Col. Gary Crowder, USAF -- Colonel Crowder is the Chief of Strategy, Concepts and Doctrine, Air Combat Command.  He is a veteran of Gulf War I and an F-111 Navigator.

Lawrence Korb -- Mr. Korb served as Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations and Logistics) from 1981 through 1985. In that position, he administered about 70 percent of the Defense budget. Mr. Korb served on active duty for four years as Naval Flight Officer, and retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of Captain.

Bing West -- Bing West served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He was also Dean of Research at the Naval War College and Vice President of the Hudson Institute. He was a CNN military analyst during Desert Storm. His firm, GAMA Corporation, conducts combat training for the Marine Corps. 

Nadia Schadlow -- Nadia Schadlow is a Senior Program Officer at the Smith Richardson Foundation and a SAIS PhD Candidate.

Adm. Arthur K. Cebrowski -- Admiral Cebrowski is is the Director of Force Transformation at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Click here for the briefing slideshow.

Professor H.P. Willmott -- Acclaimed historian and author Professor H.P. Willmott has written extensively on World Wars I and II. His most recent book is "When Men Lost Faith in Reason: Reflections on War and Society in the Twentieth Century."

Victor David Hanson -- Professor Hanson currently teaches at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. He is the author of many books, including Carnage and Culture, a military history of how the West has won its important battles.

Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden -- Lt. Gen. Hayden is Director, National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS), Fort George G. Meade, MD.

Col. Paula Thornhill -- Colonel Thornhill is the Dean of Faculty and Academic Programs at the National War College, Fort McNair, Washington, DC.

Ken Pollack -- For the past fifteen years, Ken Pollack served as an analyst on Iraq for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council.

Mike Vickers -- Currently of CSBA, a former SF officer, CIA Operations Officer (where he assisted in running the CIA's covert assistance program in Afghanistan).