Kori Schake

BIOGRAPHY

Released by the Office of Policy Planning
January 31, 2008

Dr. Kori Schake is the Principal Deputy Director in the Secretary of State’s Office of Policy Planning. Prior to her appointment, Dr. Schake served as research fellow at the Hoover Institution and as Distinguished Professor of International Security Studies at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Her areas of research interest are national security strategy, the effective use of military force, and European politics.

During President George W. Bush's first term, she was the director for Defense Strategy and Requirements on the National Security Council. She was responsible for advising the president, White House chief of staff, and national security adviser on defense issues, including the secretary of defense's annual review of the defense program and the president's annual meeting with the Combatant Commanders; developing presidential policy initiatives; and orchestrating interagency coordination for all long-term defense planning and coalition maintenance issues.

Major projects Dr. Schake contributed to while she was in the Bush administration include: conceptualizing and budgeting for continued transformation of defense practices; the global posture review, the most significant realignment of U.S. military forces and bases around the world since 1950; creating NATO's Allied Command Transformation and the NATO Response Force; and recruiting and retaining coalition partners for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Prior to her work in the White House, Dr. Schake was a senior research professor in the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. In that capacity, she conducted research on policy-relevant defense issues, particularly military transformation, transatlantic security issues, and strategies for dealing with rogue states. While she was director for European Programs (1999–2000), she developed a research agenda, assigned responsibilities to eight research staff, and managed two fiscal year budgets. Publications from this time include The Strategic Implications of a Nuclear-Armed Iran, with Judith Yaphe (National Defense University Press, 2002), "How America Should Lead," with Klaus Becher (Policy Review, August/September 2002), and "Building a European Defense," with Amaya Bloch-Laine and Charles Grant (Survival, spring 1999).

She has also taught in the faculties of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs. At SAIS, she taught M.A. and Ph.D. students in the European Studies program. At Maryland, she taught core and elective graduate courses, supervised dissertation and masters' theses, and served on faculty selection and admissions committees.

From 1990 to 1996, she worked in Pentagon staff jobs, first in the Joint Staff and then in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Dr. Schake has received the MacArthur Foundation Research and Writing Award and academic fellowships from the Smith-Richardson Foundation, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. Other honors include the 2004 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs and Outstanding Performance Awards from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff.

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