International Cooperation in Combating Terrorism: An Updated U.S. Assessment

Thursday, October 24, 2013

International Center for Terrorism Studies, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies

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Speakers Biographies:

 

General (Ret.) Alfred Gray

Twenty-Ninth Commandant of the United States Marine Corps;

Senior Fellow and Chairman of the Board of Regents,

 Potomac Institute for Policy Studies

In 1991, General Alfred Gray retired from the U.S. Marine Corps after 41 years of service and joined Garber International Associates (GIA) as a Senior Associate. From 1987 to 1991, General Gray served as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was the 29th Commandant of the Marine Corps. He served as military advisor to the President, the National Security Council and the Secretary of Defense. General Gray holds a B.S. from the State University of New York. He also attended Lafayette College, the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, Army War College and did graduate work at Syracuse University. General Gray is the recipient of a Military Science degree from Norwich University and a Doctor of Strategic Intelligence degree from the Defense Intelligence College.

Prof. Yonah Alexander

Director, International Center for Terrorism Studies

Professor Yonah Alexander, PhD, serves as a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and Director of its International Center for Terrorism Studies. He is also a member of the Board of Regents.  Concurrently, he is Director of the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies and Director of the Inter-University Center for Legal Studies.  Both are consortia of universities and think tanks throughout the world.  In addition, Professor Alexander directed the Terrorism Studies program (George Washington University) and the Institute for Studies in International Terrorism (State University of New York), totaling 35 years of service.         

Educated at Columbia University (PhD), the University of Chicago (MA), and Roosevelt University of Chicago (BA), Professor Alexander taught at: The George Washington University, The American University, the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America, Tel Aviv University, The City University of New York, and The State University of New York.  He also lectured at numerous other institutions from Amman to Warsaw.    

His research experience includes such appointments as: Research Professor of International Affairs and Visiting Professor of Law, The George Washington University; Director, “Terrorism, Gray Area and Low Level Conflict,” U.S. Global Strategy Council; Senior Fellow, The Institute for Advanced Studies in Justice, School of Law, The American University; Research Associate, School of Journalism, Columbia University; Senior Staff Member, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University; Director, Institute for Studies in International Terrorism, State University of New York; and Fellow, Institute of Social Behavior Pathology, The University of Chicago.  He is a member, International Institute of Strategic Studies (London) and other professional bodies.  Additionally, he has served as academic advisor to governments and international organizations (e.g. UN, NATO, OSCE).

            Dr. Alexander is founder and editor-in-chief of five academic international journals: Terrorism; Minorities and Group Rights; Political Communication and Persuasion; NATO’s Partnership for Peace Review; and Terrorism: An Electronic Journal & Knowledge Base. He also has published over 100 books including al-Qa’ida: Ten Year After 9/11 and Beyond; Terrorists in Our Midst: Combating Foreign Affinity Terrorism in America; Evolution of U.S. Counterterrorism Policy (three volumes); Turkey: Terrorism, Civil Rights, and the European Union; The New Iranian Leadership: Terrorism, Nuclear Ambition, and the Middle East Conflict; and Counterterrorism Strategies: Success and Failures of Six Nations.  His works were translated into more than two dozen languages.  Professor Alexander’s personal papers and collection on terrorism are housed at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University. 

            He received numerous academic and professional awards and grants from private and public foundations (the most recent is the 2010 John Lyman Prize for the book, Terror on the High Seas: From Piracy to Strategic Challenge). Professor Alexander has appeared on many television and radio programs in over 40 countries. His numerous articles and interviews were published in both the United States and the international press.

 

Dr. Michael S. Bell

Colonel, United States Army (Ret.)

Chancellor, College of International Security Affairs National Defense University

Michael S. Bell, Ph.D., is the Chancellor of the College of International Security Affairs (CISA). Prior to leading CISA, he was the Dean of Faculty and Academic Programs at the National War College during the 2009-2010 academic year.

Following graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1983 and commissioning as an armor officer, Bell served with armor, cavalry, and mechanized infantry units in a variety of Army command and staff positions in Europe, the continental United States, and Southwest Asia. He also served on the faculty at the United States Military Academy as an instructor and assistant professor of history, where he received the department’s teaching excellence award. Other noteworthy assignments include Aide de Camp to the Commanding General, 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm; Special Assistant to the Commanding General, U.S. Army Europe/Peace Stabilization Force; and Futures Chief, III Corps. From 2001-2003, Bell commanded the 1st Battalion, 8th U.S. Cavalry, an element of the 1st Cavalry Division.

Following battalion command, Bell was assigned as strategist in the Joint Staff's Strategy Division, Directorate of Strategic Plans and Policy (J5). In J5, one of Bell’s major projects included the development of the 2004 National Military Strategy and 2005 National Defense Strategy. He was also the lead writer of the 2005 National Military Strategic Plan for the War on Terrorism; the staff lead for the Joint Strategic Planning System; a member of the Kuwait Strategic Review team; the lead writer for Kuwait’s National Security and Defense Strategy; and the lead writer for the National Military Strategy of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces. During the Quadrennial Defense Review, Bell analyzed Defense reform roles, missions, and organizations.

In 2006 and 2007, Bell served as the Senior Military Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS). His research at INSS included developing future strategic concepts, ranging from space power to irregular warfare; assisting the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff with the development of strategic plans for possible contingencies; preparing a draft National Military Strategy; and analyzing previous strategic planning efforts in the United States military. Bell also participated in an Interagency Working Group studying the options for the strategic framework with Iraq upon the conclusion of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Prior to rejoining the National Defense University in September 2009, Bell served with General David Petraeus as the Director of his Commander’s Initiatives Group at Multi-National Force-Iraq headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, and subsequently at U.S. Central Command headquarters.

Bell holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Maryland at College Park. His dissertation examined the worldview of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his administration’s approach to World War II in Europe. Bell also holds an M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National Defense University. He was a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College, where he completed an award-winning research fellowship on General John J. Pershing and the development of the American General Staff. He also authored a monograph published by the Strategic Studies Institute, The Exigencies of Global, Integrated Warfare: The Evolving Role of the CJCS and His Dedicated Staff. Bell retired from the U.S. Army as a colonel in 2012 with over 29 years of active service, and his awards and decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star, the combat action badge, and the parachutist badge.

 

Greg Gross

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and senior staff member, U.S. Senate; currently, consultant on foreign policy and military affairs

Greg Gross is a business and public policy consultant, political strategist, and commentator on American politics, foreign policy and military affairs.

Mr. Gross served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the George W. Bush administration, overseeing the Defense Department's many global security military assistance programs--and leading the Secretary of Defense's efforts to better target U.S. foreign assistance to achieve U.S. national security objectives.  Mr. Gross directed programs to improve allied and partner country capabilities to support the U.S.-led efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in the global war on terror.  He also spearheaded a new defense institution reform initiative to modernize partner-country defense ministries around the world.

Before joining the Defense Department, Mr. Gross was a leading member of the U.S. Senate leadership staff, serving as chief of staff to two U.S. senators, and directing path-breaking Senate Governmental Affairs committee investigations into the financial scandals at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, mutual fund reform, and North Korea's drug trafficking, currency counterfeiting, and missile proliferation activities.

Earlier, as senior policy advisor to then-president of the American Red Cross Elizabeth Dole, Mr. Gross helped manage the $2 billion humanitarian organization, and led initiatives to improve the Red Cross's blood and disaster-response work, and to help China and other countries improve the safety of their blood supply. 

In 1995-96, Mr. Gross served as a top advisor and Deputy Policy Director to Senator Majority Leader Bob Dole, helping oversee all policy development and communications for Dole’s presidential campaign.

Mr. Gross has worked as a management and economics consultant to Fortune 100 companies, international organizations, and academic institutions.  He also served as a  policy advisor to several Members of Parliament in the British House of Commons during the Thatcher years.  Mr. Gross holds degrees from Yale University and Harvard College.

 

Dr Harlan K. Ullman

Senior Advisor at the Atlantic Council and Chairman of the Killowen Group

Dr Harlan K. Ullman sits on various boards of directors; is chairman of the Killowen Group that advises leaders of government and business; Chairman of CNIGuard Ltd, a high technology infrastructure protection firm; Senior Advisor at the Atlantic Council; and on the advisory board of Business Executives for National Security.