Ray Mabus is the 75th United States Secretary of the Navy. As Secretary, he leads America's Navy and Marine Corps and is responsible for an annual budget in excess of $150 billion and almost 900,000 people.

The secretary of the Navy is responsible for conducting all the affairs of the Department of the Navy, including recruiting, organizing, supplying, equipping, training, and mobilizing. Additionally, he oversees the construction, outfitting, and repair of naval ships, equipment and facilities, and is responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies and programs that are consistent with the national security policies and objectives established by the President and the Secretary of Defense.

Prior to joining the administration of President Barack Obama, Mabus served in a variety of top posts in government and the private sector. In 1988, Mabus was elected Governor of Mississippi. As the youngest governor of Mississippi in more than 100 years at the time of his election, he stressed education and job creation. He passed B.E.S.T. (Better Education for Success Tomorrow), one of the most comprehensive education reform programs in America, and was named one of Fortune Magazine's top ten education governors. He was appointed Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the Clinton Administration in 1994. During his tenure as Ambassador, a crisis with Iraq was successfully averted and Saudi Arabia officially abandoned the boycott of United States businesses that trade with Israel. He also was Chairman and CEO of Foamex, a large manufacturing company, which he led out of bankruptcy in less than 9 months paying all creditors in full and saving equity. Prior to becoming Governor he was elected State Auditor of Mississippi and served as a Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy aboard the cruiser USS Little Rock.

Secretary Mabus is a native of Ackerman, Miss., and received a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Mississippi, a Master’s Degree from Johns Hopkins University, and a Law Degree from Harvard Law School. He has been awarded the U.S. Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award, the U.S. Army's Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the Martin Luther King Social Responsibility Award from the King Center in Atlanta, the National Wildlife Federation Conservation Achievement Award, the King Abdul Aziz Award from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Mississippi Association of Educators' Friend of Education Award.

Admiral Roughead is a 1973 graduate of the United States Naval Academy.

Among his six operational commands, Roughead was the first officer to command both classes of Aegis ships, having commanded USS Barry (DDG 52) and USS Port Royal (CG 73).

As a flag officer, Roughead commanded Cruiser Destroyer Group 2, the George Washington Battle Group; and U.S. 2nd Fleet/NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic and Naval Forces North Fleet East.

Ashore, he served as commandant, United States Naval Academy, the Department of the Navy’s chief of legislative affairs, and as deputy commander, U.S. Pacific Command.
Roughead is one of only two officers to have commanded the fleets in the Pacific and Atlantic, commanding the U.S. Pacific Fleet and Joint Task Force 519, as well as U.S. Fleet Forces Command, where he was responsible for ensuring Navy forces were trained, ready, equipped and prepared to operate around the world, where and when needed.

Roughead's awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, and various unit and service awards.

Roughead became the 29th chief of naval operations Sep. 29, 2007.

Admiral Robert J. Papp, Jr. assumed the duties of the 24th Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard on May 25, 2010. He leads the largest component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), comprised of 42,000 active duty, 8,200 Reserve, 8,000 civilian and 31,000 volunteer Auxiliarists.

The Coast Guard is “Semper Paratus” – Always Ready – to use its distinctive blend of military, humanitarian and law enforcement capabilities to save lives and property at sea, protect and maintain our ports and maritime transportation system, secure our borders, respond to natural disasters, protect our marine environment and defend our Nation. The Coast Guard is also America’s oldest continuous seagoing service and one of the Nation’s five armed services. We trace our history back to August 4th, 1790, when the first Congress authorized the construction of ten vessels to enforce tariff and trade laws and to prevent smuggling. Our people are committed to the Coast Guard’s core values of Honor, Respect and Devotion to Duty..

As a flag officer, Admiral Papp served as Commander, Coast Guard Atlantic Area, where he was operational commander for all U.S. Coast Guard missions within the eastern half of the world and provided support to the Department of Defense; as the Chief of Staff of the Coast Guard and Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Headquarters; as Commander, Ninth Coast Guard District, with responsibilities for Coast Guard missions on the Great Lakes and Northern Border; and as Director of Reserve and Training where he was responsible for managing and supporting 13,000 Coast Guard Ready Reservists and all Coast Guard Training Centers.

Admiral Papp has served in six Coast Guard Cutters, commanding four of them: RED BEECH, PAPAW, FORWARD, and the training barque EAGLE. He also served as commander of a task unit during Operation ABLE MANNER off the coast of Haiti in 1994, enforcing United Nations Sanctions. Additionally, his task unit augmented U.S. Naval Forces during Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY.

He is a 1975 graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy. Additionally, he holds a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the United States Naval War College and a Master of Science in Management from Salve Regina College.

Admiral Papp is the 13th Gold Ancient Mariner of the Coast Guard. The Gold Ancient Mariner is an honorary position held by an officer with over ten years of cumulative sea duty who has held the qualification as a Cutterman longer than any other officer.

Admiral Papp is a native of Norwich, Conn. He is married to the former Linda Kapral of East Lyme, Conn. Admiral and Mrs. Papp have three daughters, and one granddaughter.

General James F. Amos, USMC, is the 31st and current Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps. A Naval aviator by trade, General Amos has held command at all levels from Lieutenant Colonel to Lieutenant General. Most notably he commanded the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in combat during Operations IRAQI FREEDOM I and II from 2002-2004, followed by command of the II Marine Expeditionary Force from 2004-2006. He subsequently served as the Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command and as the Deputy Commandant, Combat Development and Integration from 2006 to July 2008. General Amos was promoted to his present rank and assumed the duties of Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps on 2 July 2008.

Operational assignments include tours with Marine Fighter Attack Squadrons 212, 235, 232 and 122 where he flew the F-4 Phantom II. In 1985 General Amos assumed command of Marine Wing Support Squadron 173. Later, transitioning to the F/A-18 Hornet, he assumed command of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 312 and subsequently joined Carrier Air Wing Eight on board USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). General Amos took command of Marine Aircraft Group 31 Beaufort, SC in May 1996.

General Amos' staff assignments include tours with Marine Aircraft Groups 15 and 31, the III Marine Amphibious Force, Training Squadron Seven, The Basic School, and with the MAGTF Staff Training Program. Promoted to Brigadier General in 1998 he was assigned to NATO as Deputy Commander, Naval Striking Forces, Southern Europe, Naples, Italy. During this tour he commanded NATO's Kosovo Verification Center, and later served as Chief of Staff, U.S. Joint Task Force Noble Anvil during the air campaign over Serbia. Transferred in 2000 to the Pentagon, he was assigned as Assistant Deputy Commandant for Aviation. Reassigned in December 2001, General Amos served as the Assistant Deputy Commandant for Plans, Policies and Operations Department, Headquarters, Marine Corps.

Rear Admiral James ‘Phil’ Wisecup became the 52nd president of the U.S. Naval War College on Nov. 6, 2008. He most recently served as commander, Carrier Strike Group 7 (Ronald Reagan Strike Group), returning from deployment in October 2008.

A 1977 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Wisecup earned his master’s degree in international relations from the University of Southern California, graduated from the Naval War College in 1998, and also earned a degree from the University of Strasbourg, France, as an Olmsted Scholar, in 1982.

At sea, he served as executive officer of USS Valley Forge (CG 50) during Operation DESERT STORM. As commanding officer, USS Callaghan (DDG 994), he was awarded the Vice Admiral James Stockdale Award for Inspirational Leadership. He served as commander, Destroyer Squadron 21 during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM after 9/11.

Ashore, Wisecup was assigned to NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, served as force planner and ship scheduler for Commander, U.S. Naval Surface Forces, Pacific, and served as action officer for Navy Headquarters Plans/Policy Staff. He served as a fellow on the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group; director, White House Situation Room and commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea.

Wisecup's awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, and various unit, service and campaign awards.

Ambassador Peters became the fourth Provost of the Naval War College on 18 September 2008. Previously, she held the position of Dean of Academics of the College of International and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Prior to becoming the Dean of the College, Ambassador Peters served as Associate Director for International Liaison at the Marshall Center.

Before joining the Marshall Center in 2003, Ambassador Peters spent more than 30 years as a career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State. From 2000 to 2003 Ambassador Peters served as the U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh, leading the Mission's efforts in support of the war on terrorism and other key U.S. foreign policy goals. She received a Presidential Meritorious Service Award in 2003 for her work in Bangladesh. Prior to her posting in Dhaka, Ambassador Peters was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, responsible for the management of the Embassy and supervision of the six U.S. Consulates General in Canada.

From 1995 to 1997, Ambassador Peters served in the White House as Director for European and Canadian Affairs at the National Security Council. Among other portfolios in this position, Ambassador Peters worked on the diplomatic and security aspects of the search for peace in Northern Ireland. From 1993 to 1994, Ambassador Peters served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State with oversight responsibility for U.S. relations with 19 Western European countries and Canada. In this capacity she acted as the U.S. Chair of the U.S.-Canada military coordination body, the Permanent Joint Board on Defense.

A senior diplomat, fluent in six foreign languages, Ambassador Peters has also served in Sofia, Bulgaria, as Deputy Chief of Mission; in Moscow as Economic Counselor; and in Mandalay, Burma, as Principal Officer. Prior to her assignment in Moscow, she studied Russian at the U.S. Army Russian Institute in Garmisch, Germany. From 1988 to 1990, Ambassador Peters was the Deputy Director of the Office of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh Affairs in the U.S. State Department. She began her career as a Vice-Consul in Frankfurt in 1975.

Ambassador Peters holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Santa Clara University and a Masters in International Studies from the School of Advanced International Studies at The Johns Hopkins University. Her formal education also included course work in Paris, France, and Bologna, Italy.

Max Boot is one of America’s leading military historians and foreign-policy analysts. The Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York, he is also a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and the Los Angeles Times, and a regular contributor to the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Commentary, and many other publications. (His articles may be found at: http://www.maxboot.net.)

His last book, War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today (Gotham Books, 2006), has been hailed as a “magisterial survey of technology and war” by the New York Times, “brilliantly crafted history” by The Wall Street Journal, and “a book for both the general reader and reading generals” by the New York Post.

His previous book, The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power (Basic Books), was selected as one of the best books of 2002 by the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and The Christian Science Monitor. It won the 2003 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award, given annually by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation for the best nonfiction book pertaining to Marine Corps history, and has been placed on Navy, Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps professional reading lists.
Boot is a frequent public speaker and guest on radio and television news programs, both at home and abroad. He has lectured at many military institutions, including the Army, Navy, and Air War Colleges, the Australian Defence College, the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School, the Army Command and General Staff College, Marine Corps University, West Point, and the Naval Academy. He is a member of the U.S. Joint Forces Command Transformation Advisory Group. He was a senior foreign policy adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2007-2008.

In 2004, he was named by the World Affairs Councils of America as one of “the 500 most influential people in the United States in the field of foreign policy.” In 2007, he won the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism, given annually to a writer who exhibits "love of country and its democratic institutions" and "bears witness to the evils of totalitarianism." The New York Sun says that he is “ably filling the role occupied for many years by John Keegan, the famed British author of classics like The Face of War and The Mask of Command.”

Before joining CFR in 2002, Boot spent eight years as a writer and editor at The Wall Street Journal, the last five years as editorial features editor. From 1992 to 1994 he was an editor and writer at The Christian Science Monitor.

Boot holds a bachelor’s degree in history, with high honors, from the University of California, Berkeley (1991), and a master’s degree in history from Yale University (1992). He grew up in Los Angeles and now lives with his family in the New York area.

Ambassador Nicholas Burns is Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is Director of the Future of Diplomacy Project and Faculty Chair for the Programs on the Middle East and on India and South Asia. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He was a visiting Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in summer 2008.

He is Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, Senior Counselor at the Cohen Group and serves on the Board of Directors of the Vangent Holding Corporation and the Advisory Board for Veracity Worldwide. Burns is on the Board of Directors of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Center for a New American Security, The Atlantic Council and a number of other non-profit organizations. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Order of Saint John and Red Sox Nation.

Ambassador Burns served in the United States Foreign Service for twenty-seven years until his retirement in April 2008. He was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008, the State Department’s third-ranking official when he led negotiations on the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, a long-term military assistance agreement with Israel and was the lead U.S. negotiator on Iran’s nuclear program. He was U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005) and to Greece (1997-2001) and State Department Spokesman (1995-1997). He worked for five years (1990-1995) on the National Security Council at the White House when he was Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Affairs and Special Assistant to President Clinton and, before that, Director for Soviet Affairs in the Administration of President George H.W. Bush. Burns also served in the American Consulate General in Jerusalem from 1985 to 1987 where he coordinated U.S. economic assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and before that, at the American embassies in Egypt and Mauritania. He has received ten honorary doctorates, the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service from the Johns Hopkins University and the Boston College Alumni Achievement Award. Burns has a BA in History from Boston College (1978) and an MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (1980). He also earned the Certificat Pratique de Langue Française at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1977.

Professor Donald W. Chisholm joined the Naval War College in 2000. Before coming to the Naval War College, he taught at several universities, including the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was a founding member of the School of Public Policy and Social Research. Professor Chisholm earned his A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. His chief fields of interest include military history, organization theory, administrative behavior, policy analysis, and American political institutions. His research has examined the planning and execution of joint military operations; cognitive and organizational limits on rationality; organizational adaptation and innovation; organizational failure and reliability, particularly in high-risk technologies; and privatization of public activities. He is the author of Coordination Without Hierarchy: Informal Structures in Multi-organizational Systems (University of California Press, 1989) and Waiting for Dead Men’s Shoes: Origins and Development of the U.S. Navy’s Officer Personnel System, 1793–1941 (Stanford University Press, 2001), for which he received the 2001 RADM Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Distinguished Contribution to Naval Literature. He has also published a number of articles in professional journals, including Joint Force Quarterly, Parameters, Journal of Strategic Studies, and the Naval War College Review. His present research considers the U.S. employment of irregular warfare against the Japanese during their WW II occupation of the Philippines.

Ambassador Dobbins directs RAND’s International Security and Defense Policy Center. He has held State Department and White House posts including Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, Special Assistant to the President for the Western Hemisphere, Special Adviser to the President and Secretary of State for the Balkans, and Ambassador to the European Community. He has handled a variety of crisis management assignments as the Clinton Administration’s special envoy for Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo, and the Bush Administration’s first special envoy for Afghanistan. He is lead author of the three-volume RAND History of Nation Building and Occupying Iraq: A History of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

In the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, Dobbins was designated as the Bush Administration’s representative to the Afghan opposition. Dobbins helped organize and then represented the United States at the Bonn Conference where a new Afghan government was formed. On Dec. 16, 2001, he raised the flag over the newly reopened U.S. Embassy.

Dobbins graduated from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and served 3 years in the U.S. Navy. He is married to Toril Kleivdal, and has two sons.

Daniel W. Drezner is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a senior editor at The National Interest, and a contributing editor at Foreign Policy.

Prior to Fletcher, Dr. Drezner taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has worked previously with Civic Education Project, the RAND Corporation and as an international economist at the Treasury Department. He has received fellowships from the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Harvard University.

Dr. Drezner is the author, most recently, of All Politics is Global: Explaining International Regulatory Regimes (2007). He also authored U.S. Trade Strategy (2006) and The Sanctions Paradox (1999), and edited Avoiding Trivia (2009) and Locating the Proper Authorities (2003). Drezner has published articles in numerous scholarly journals as well as in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs. He keeps a daily blog for Foreign Policy. His next book, Theories of International Politics and Zombies, will be released in October.

Gregg Easterbrook is the author of eight books, including The Progress Paradox and the 2010 bestseller Sonic Boom. He is a contributing editor to The Atlantic Monthly, to The New Republic and to The Washington Monthly, and often also writes for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He is a frequent national television guest, including, this year, on ABC Evening News, BBC World News and the Colbert Report. He writes a column on politics for Reuters, and as a hobby, during the football season writes a sports column for ESPN.com. He is a former visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and distinguished fellow of the Fulbright Foundation. His website is http://www.greggeasterbrook.com.

Charles Hill, a career minister in the U.S. Foreign Service, is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Hill was executive aide to former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz (1985–89) and served as special consultant on policy to the secretary-general of the United Nations from 1992 to 1996. He is Brady-Johnson Distinguished Fellow in Grand Strategy and senior lecturer in International Studies and in Humanities at Yale. He is also Research Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

Among Hill's awards are the Superior Honor Award from the Department of State in 1973 and 1981; the Distinguished Honor Award in 1978; the Presidential Meritorious Service Award in 1986; the Presidential Distinguished Service Award in 1987 and 1989; and the Secretary of State's Medal in 1989. He was granted an honorary doctor of laws degree by Rowan University.

In 1983, Hill was appointed chief of staff of the State Department, following his serving as deputy assistant secretary for the Middle East.

His career took him to the Middle East in 1978, where he was deputy director of the Israel desk; in 1979 he became political counselor for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. In 1981, he was named director of Israel and Arab-Israeli affairs, and in 1982 he served as deputy assistant secretary for the Middle East.

Hill began his career in 1963 as a vice consul in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1964, he became a Chinese-language officer in Taichung, Taiwan, and in 1966 was appointed as a political officer in Hong Kong. He was mission coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon in 1971–1973, and then in the State Department as China cultural exchange negotiator. He was involved in the 1974 Panama Canal negotiations, then became a member of the policy planning staff as a speech writer for Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1975.

During 1970, he was a fellow at the Harvard University East Asia Research Center. He was a Clark fellow at Cornell University in 1989.

He received an A.B. degree from Brown University in 1957, a J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1960, and an M.A. degree in American studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961.

Hill has collaborated with former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on Egypt's Road to Jerusalem, a memoir of the Middle East peace negotiations, and Unvanquished, about U.S. relations with the U.N. in the post–cold war period, both published by Random House. Hill is the editor of the three-volume Papers of U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali, published by Yale University Press. Yale University Press this month will publish his book Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft, and World Order.

Dr. Charles A. Kupchan is Professor of International Affairs at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Kupchan was director for European affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) during the first Clinton administration. Before joining the NSC, he worked in the U.S. Department of State on the policy planning staff. Prior to government service, he was an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University.

He is the author of The End of the American Era: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century (2002), Power in Transition: The Peaceful Change of International Order (2001), Civic Engagement in the Atlantic Community (1999), Atlantic Security: Contending Visions (1998), Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe (1995), The Vulnerability of Empire (1994), The Persian Gulf and the West (1987), and numerous articles on international and strategic affairs. His latest book is How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace (Princeton University Press, 2010).

Dr. Kupchan received a BA from Harvard University and MPhil and DPhil degrees from Oxford University. He has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, Columbia University’s Institute for War and Peace Studies, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Centre d’Études et de Recherches Internationales in Paris, and the Institute for International Policy Studies in Tokyo.

Clare Lockhart is Director and Co-Founder of the Institute for State Effectiveness, which focuses on transforming unstable societies through balancing state, market and civil society solutions in such countries as Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia and southern Sudan. Lockhart, who co-wrote Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World, serves as an advisor to senior military and civilian leaders on a number of reviews and panels relating to global security and economic issues. Lockhart and her co-author were jointly ranked No. 20 on Foreign Policy magazine's "Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2009." Before founding ISE, Lockhart was living in Kabul, Afghanistan, as a U.N. advisor to the Bonn Agreement, a series of pacts intended to rebuild Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion. Previously, she managed a program on institutions at the World Bank. Lockhart is a member of the Bar of England and Wales.

Professor John H. Maurer serves as the Chair of the Strategy and Policy Department at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He is a graduate of Yale University and holds an M.A.L.D. and Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Before joining the faculty of the Naval War College, he served as executive editor of Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs, and held the position of senior research fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He served on the Secretary of the Navy’s advisory committee on naval history. In addition, he is the author or editor of books examining the outbreak of the First World War, military interventions in the developing world, naval arms control between the two world wars, and a study about Winston Churchill’s views on British foreign policy and strategy. His current research includes work on Winston Churchill and Great Britain’s decline as a world power, and great power arms competitions. In June 2001, he received the U.S. Navy’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

Henry R. Nau is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University. He directs the US-Japan-South Korea Legislative Exchange Program, semiannual meetings between Members of the U.S. Congress, Japanese Diet, and Korean National Assembly. He holds a B.S. degree in Economics, Politics and Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

He has taught at Williams College and as Visiting Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, Stanford, and Columbia Universities. He is the recipient of grants from, among others, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Science Foundation, Council on Foreign Relations, Smith-Richardson Foundation, Century Foundation, Japan US Friendship Commission, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

From January 1981 to July 1983, he served on President Reagan's National Security Council as senior staff member responsible for international economic affairs. Among other duties he was the White House sherpa for the Annual G-7 Economic Summits at Ottawa (1981), Versailles (1982), and Williamsburg (1983) and a special summit with developing countries at Cancun, Mexico (1982). Dr. Nau also served, in 1975-1977, as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Department of State. In 1977 he received the State Department's Superior Honor Award.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa and Council on Foreign Relations, Nau also served two years as a Lieutenant in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

His published books include, among others, Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions, and Ideas, (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2007; 2nd Edition 2009); At Home Abroad: Identity and Power in American Foreign Policy (Cornell University Press, 2002), also published in Japanese by Yuhikaku Press, 2006; Trade and Security: US Policies at Cross-Purposes (American Enterprise Institute Press, 1995); The Myth of America’s Decline: Leading the World Economy into the 1990’s (Oxford University Press, 1990, paperback with new preface, 1992), also published in Japanese by TBS Britannica, 1994; and National Politics and International Technology: Nuclear Reactor Development in Western Europe (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974).

Most recent articles and monographs include “Obama’s Foreign Policy: The Swing Away from Bush” Policy Review, No. 160, April/May 2010 (Hoover Institution, Stanford University); "Conservative Internationalism: Jefferson to Polk to Truman to Reagan” Policy Review , No 150, August/September 2008; "No Enemies on the Right", The National Interest, No. 78 (Winter 2004/05); and Divided Diplomacy and the Next Administration: Conservative and Liberal Alternatives, (164 pp.) co-edited with David Shambaugh and published by the Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University, October 2004.

Dr. Thomas M. Nichols is a Professor in the National Security Decision Making Department at the U.S. Naval War College, where he is the Course Director for the Security, Strategy and Forces course. He is a former Secretary of the Navy Fellow, and held the Naval War College's Forrest Sherman Chair of Public Diplomacy. Dr. Nichols was previously the chairman of the Strategy and Policy Department at the Naval War College, for which he was awarded the Navy Civilian Meritorious Service Medal in 2005. Before coming to Newport, he taught international relations and Soviet/Russian affairs at Dartmouth College and Georgetown University.

Dr. Nichols was personal staff for defense and security affairs in the United States Senate to the late Sen. John Heinz of Pennsylvania, and was a Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. He has been an Associate of the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University, and he is currently a Senior Associate of the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs in New York City and a Fellow of the International History Institute at Boston University. Since 2008, Dr. Nichols has also been a Fellow in the International Security Program at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University, where he also teaches courses on “The Future of War” and “Nuclear Weapons and International Security.”

He is the author of several books and articles, including The Sacred Cause: Civil-Military Conflict Over Soviet National Security, 1917-1992, The Russian Presidency: Society and Politics in the Second Russian Republic, and Winning the World: Lessons for America’s Future from the Cold War. His most recent book, about the revolutionary changes taking place in the way nations go to war, is Eve of Destruction: The Coming of Age of Preventive War (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). At Harvard's “Project on Managing the Atom,” he is working on a book titled No Use: Nuclear Weapons and the Reform of American Security Strategy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011).

Dr. Nichols holds a PhD from Georgetown, an MA from Columbia University, the Certificate of the Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union at Columbia, and a BA from Boston University. .

Mary Elise Sarotte's newest book, 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe, appeared with Princeton University Press on 9 November 2009, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Financial Times selected it as one of their "Books of the Year," and it won both the 2010 Ferrell Prize of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), for distinguished scholarship on US foreign policy, and the 2009 Prize from the German government's Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), for distinguished scholarship in German and European Studies. In addition, the book received reviews in Foreign Affairs, The London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and The Wall Street Journal, among other places. Sarotte's previous publications include the books Dealing with the Devil, and German Military Reform and European Security, plus a number of scholarly articles. She has also worked as a journalist for Time, Die Zeit, and The Economist, and appears as a political commentator on the BBC, CNN International and Sky News. Sarotte earned her BA in History and Science at Harvard and her PhD in History at Yale. After graduate school, she served as a White House Fellow, and subsequently joined the faculty of the University of Cambridge. She received tenure there in 2004 and became a member of the Royal Historical Society before returning to the US to teach at USC. Sarotte is a former Humboldt Scholar, a former member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

With over twenty years of experience in foreign policy, Ms. Soderberg has served in the United States Senate, in the White House and at the United Nations. Ms. Soderberg has a deep understanding of policy-making and negotiations at the highest levels of government and the U.N. She has promoted democracy and conflict resolution worldwide. Ms. Soderberg achieved international recognition for her efforts to promote peace in Northern Ireland and also advised the president on policies toward China, Japan, Russia, Angola, the Balkans, Haiti, as well as on a variety of conflicts in Africa.

Ms. Soderberg also is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of N. Florida in Jacksonville and President and CEO of Soderberg Global Solutions. From 2001-2005, Ms. Soderberg ran the New York office of the International Crisis Group as Vice President. In that capacity, she advocated conflict prevention at the United Nations and other multilateral institutions. In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Ms. Soderberg to serve as Alternate Representative to the United Nations as a Presidential Appointee, with the rank of Ambassador. Her responsibilities included representing the United States at the Security Council on a wide range of current national security issues, including conflict resolution, promotion of democracy abroad, trade policy, and arms control. She represented the United States in negotiations at the Security Council, participated in missions to key conflict areas, and promoted U.S. national security policy at the United Nations and with the leadership of other nations.

From 1993-97, Ms. Soderberg served as the third-ranking official of the National Security Council at the White House, as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. She was responsible for day-to-day crisis management, briefing the President, developing U.S. national security policy at the highest levels of government, and handling issues regarding the press and Congress.

She is chair of the National Security Network of Florida, an organization which invites prominent speakers on foreign policy to the state and is on the board of the Jacksonville World Affairs Council.

Ms. Soderberg publishes and speaks regularly on national security policy. Her second book, The Prosperity Agenda: What the World Wants from America—and What We Need in Return, written with Brian Katulis, was published in July 2008. It argues for American leadership in tackling the world's challenges in exchange for the world assisting us with our threat. Her 2005 book, The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might, analyzes the use of force and diplomacy over the last decade. She is a regular commentator on national and international television and radio, including NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, BBC, Fox, National Public Radio, the Lehrer NewsHour, CNN Crossfire, and The Daily Show. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She also served as President of the Sister Cities Program of the City of New York from 2002-2006. She earned a Master of Science Degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Vanderbilt University. She speaks fluent French.

Hew Strachan was born and brought up in Edinburgh. He is Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford, Fellow of All Souls College, and Director of the Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 2003 and awarded an Hon. D.Univ., (Paisley) 2005. He is also Life Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was successively Research Fellow, Admissions Tutor and Senior Tutor, 1975-92. From 1992 to 2001 he was Professor of Modern History at the University of Glasgow, and from 1996 to 2001 Director of the Scottish Centre for War Studies.

His books include: European Armies and the Conduct of War (1983); Wellington’s Legacy: the Reform of the British Army 1830-54 (1984); From Waterloo to Balaclava: Tactics, Technology and the British Army 1815-1854 (1985) (awarded the Templer Medal); The Politics of the British Army (1997) (awarded the Westminster Medal); the first volume of his three-volume, The First World War (To Arms), (2001) (awarded two American military history prizes and nominated for the Glenfiddich Scottish book of the year); The First World War: A New Illustrated History (2003), published to accompany the 10-part Wark Clements television series for Channel 4, (nominated for a British Book Award and translated into German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish and French); and Clausewitz's On War: a biography (2007). He is joint editor of the journal, War in History, and was editor of The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War (1998); The British Army, Manpower and Society into the 21st Century (2000); and Clausewitz in the 21st Century (2008).