While working at AEI, Ms. Eaglen served as a staff member on the National Defense Strategy Commission, a congressionally mandated bipartisan review group whose final report in November 2018, “Providing for the Common Defense,” included assessments and recommendations for the administration. Earlier, Ms. Eaglen served as a staff member on the 2014 congressionally mandated National Defense Panel, established to assess US defense interests and strategic objectives, and in 2010 on the congressionally mandated bipartisan Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel, which evaluated the Pentagon’s defense strategy. She is also one of the 12-member US Army War College Board of Visitors, which offers advice about program objectives and effectiveness.

Before joining AEI, Ms. Eaglen worked on defense issues in the House of Representatives, in the US Senate, and at the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and on the Joint Staff.

A prolific writer on defense-related issues, Ms. Eaglen has been published in the popular press, including in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Politico, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and War on the Rocks. She has also testified before Congress.

Ms. Eaglen has an MA from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a BA from Mercer University.

Before joining AEI, Dr. Cooper was the senior fellow for Asian security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He also served as assistant to the deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism at the National Security Council and as a special assistant to the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy at the Department of Defense.

Dr. Cooper has been published in several academic journals, including International Security, Security Studies, and the US Naval War College Review. He has also coauthored a variety of studies on Asia, including such topics as US military strategy and posture in Asia, Chinese coercion, and US defense cooperation with regional allies and partners. He is the coeditor of two books, “Postwar Japan: Growth, Security, and Uncertainty since 1945”(CSIS/Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) and “Strategic Japan: New Approaches to Foreign Policy and the US-Japan Alliance”(CSIS/Rowman & Littlefield, 2014).

Dr. Cooper graduated from Princeton University with a PhD and an MA in security studies and an MPA in international relations. He received a BA in public policy from Stanford University.

Before joining AEI, Mr. Kitchen was director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Technology Policy, where he led an enterprise-wide, interdisciplinary effort to understand and shape the nation’s most important technology issues.

Before joining Heritage, Mr. Kitchen was national security adviser to Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) and worked on the creation of the US Cyberspace Solarium Commission, a blue-ribbon commission tasked with developing an American grand strategy for cyber. While working for Sen. Sasse, Mr. Kitchen served as the staff director of the National Security and International Trade and Finance Subcommittee for the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Mr. Kitchen has also worked on cyber strategy at the National Counterterrorism Center; as a senior program assessment officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the Office of the Director of Central Intelligence; and as the lead analyst on al Qaeda senior leadership at the Defense Intelligence Agency. He was also the National Counterterrorism Center chair at National Defense University.

A popular speaker, Mr. Kitchen has appeared on “60 Minutes” on CBS News and The New York Times podcast “The Argument.” He has also been published in RealClearDefense, The Hill, The National Interest, The Telegraph, Washington Examiner, and National Affairs, among other outlets.

Mr. Kitchen has an MA in strategy and security studies from the College of International Security Affairs and a War College Diploma in security strategy and irregular warfare from the National War College, both from National Defense University. His BA in biblical studies is from Bryan College.

Before joining AEI, Ms. Pletka was a senior professional staff member for the Middle East and South Asia for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Ms. Pletka has authored, coauthored, and coedited a variety of studies, monographs, and book chapters, including the introduction to “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East” (AEI Press, 2019); the report “Tehran Stands atop the Syria-Iran Alliance” (Atlantic Council, 2017); the chapter “America in Decline” in “Debating the Obama Presidency” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016); “America vs. Iran: The Competition for the Future of the Middle East” (AEI, 2014); “Iranian Influence in the Levant, Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan” (AEI, 2012); “Containing and Deterring a Nuclear Iran” (AEI, 2011); and “Dissent and Reform in the Arab World: Empowering Democrats” (AEI Press, 2008).

A regular guest on television, Ms. Pletka appears frequently on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” Her broadcast appearances also include CBS News, CNN, C-SPAN, and MSNBC. She has been published in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Hill, and Politico, among other outlets. Ms. Pletka is also the cohost, with AEI’s Marc Thiessen, of the podcast “What the Hell Is Going On? (Making Sense of the World).”

She has an MA from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a BA from Smith College.