Panel I Biographies

MODERATOR: Bernard E. Brown, Ph.D.

Transatlantic Relations Project Director
National Committee on American Foreign Policy

Bernard E. Brown is professor emeritus of political science at the graduate school of the City University of New York. He previously taught at Vanderbilt University and State University of New York–Buffalo, and has served as visiting professor at the universities of Rennes (France), McGill (Canada), Delhi (India), Dakar (Senegal), and Saigon (Vietnam). He earned his doctorate at Columbia University.

Brown is author, coauthor, or editor of more than a dozen books on comparative politics, French politics, and political theory. His books include Comparative Politics (10th ed., 2005); L’Etat et la politique aux Etats-Unis (preface by Maurice Duverger, 1996); Socialism of a Different Kind: Reshaping the Left in France (1981); and Protest in Paris, Anatomy of a Revolt (1974). He has also written many articles published in professional journals.

Among the articles Brown has written for the National Committee’s journal, American Foreign Policy Interests, are “On the Breaking of Nations” (February 2005); “The United States and Europe: Partners, Rivals, Enemies?” (April 2004); “Europe Against America: A New Superpower Rivalry?” (August 2003); “Are Americans from Mars, Europeans from Venus?” (December 2002); “But What Is the National Interest?” (August 2002); “Europe’s Rise—NATO’s Demise?” (October 2001); “What Is the New Diplomacy?” (February 2001); “NATO Hits a Land Mine” (February 2000); and “Reinventing NATO” (February 1999).

George D. Schwab, Ph.D.

President
National Committee on American Foreign Policy

George D. Schwab is president of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. He also holds the title of professor emeritus of history and teaches at The City University of New York (The Graduate Center and The City College).

Schwab earned his doctorate from Columbia University in 1968 and began his teaching career at Columbia in the late 1950s. Since 1960, he has been teaching at The City University of New York. His courses include “History of the Cold War” and “From Appeasement to Detente and Beyond.”

Schwab is the author, editor, and translator of numerous books and articles. His book, The Challenge of the Exception: An Introduction to the Political Ideas of Carl Schmitt Between 1921 and 1936, has been translated into Japanese and Italian. His translation (with Erna Hilfstein) and introduction to Carl Schmitt’s The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes appeared in 1996. A second printing of his translation of and introduction to Carl Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political was published by The University of Chicago Press.

Edited books that deal with aspects of the Cold War to which Schwab has contributed chapters include United States Foreign Policy at the Crossroads; Eurocommunism: The Ideological and Political-Theoretical Foundations; Ideology and Foreign Policy; and Detente in Historical Perspective.

Schwab has lectured widely on his concept of “The Open-Society Bloc” at institutions such as the University of Freiburg and the Bundeswehrhochschule at Hamburg. He has also presented papers and participated at international gatherings in Tokyo; Paris (the Nobel Laureate conference at the Elysée Palace, 1988); Jerusalem; Washington, D.C.; and New York.

In 1974, Schwab cofounded the National Committee on American Foreign Policy with the late Hans J. Morgenthau. He has edited the committee’s bimonthly, American Foreign Policy Interests (formerly, American Foreign Policy Newsletter), since its inception in 1976. Before assuming the presidency of the committee in 1993, he was its senior vice president and vice president.

Schwab formerly served on the board of directors of the Ralph Bunche Institute on the United Nations. In May 1998, he was made an Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient. In November 2002, he received the Order of the Three Stars medal, the highest award of the Latvian government.

Ambassador Alyson J.K. Bailes

Director, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Before assuming her current position as director of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, Alyson Bailes served as the British ambassador to Finland from 2000 to 2002. She previously held a number of foreign posts for the British government, including Budapest, Bonn, Hong Kong, and Oslo. In addition, Bailes worked in the Western European Department and the European Community Department, was the second secretary in the United Kingdom delegation to NATO, served on a special mission to the European Council, and was the deputy head of the Policy Planning Staff and head of the Security Policy Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 1996 and 1997, Bailes was vice president for the European Security Programme at the Institute for EastWest Studies in New York. From 1997 to 2000, she was the political director of the Western European Union in Brussels.

Bailes earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oxford University. She has published many articles in international journals and contributed chapters to several books, primarily on European defense, regional security cooperation, and arms control.

Ambassador Herman J. Cohen

Former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
and President, Cohen and Woods International

A retired career diplomat and specialist in African and European affairs, Ambassador Herman J. Cohen is president of Cohen and Woods International. Established in 1994, the firm provides strategic planning services to African and Middle Eastern governments and multinational corporations doing business in Africa and the Middle East. The firm is a member of the United States Corporate Council on Africa. Cohen’s consulting activities include the development of energy-intensive industries in the Republic of the Congo, the mining of bitumen from oil sands in Nigeria, and the promotion of private investment in the Republic of Mauritania.
 
Cohen retired from the U.S. Department of State in 1993. His last position was assistant secretary of state for African affairs under President George H.W. Bush (1989–1993). During his 38-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service, he served in five African countries and twice in France. He was the ambassador to Senegal, with dual accreditation to the Gambia, from 1977 to 1980. During assignments in Washington, he also served as special assistant to President Ronald Reagan (1987–1989), principal deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and research, and principal deputy assistant secretary for personnel.
 
From 1994 to 1998, under contract to the World Bank, Cohen was a senior advisor to the Global Coalition for Africa, an intergovernmental policy forum that works to achieve consensus between donor and African governments on economic policy.
 
Cohen is a member of the boards of directors of the Council for a Community of Democracies and the Constituency for Africa. He has been a professorial lecturer in foreign policy studies at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies since 1998. He is a member of the panel on Transatlantic Relations of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. He is the author of a book on conflict resolution in Africa entitled Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent (2000). This book won the award for distinguished writing on diplomatic practice for the year 2000 from the American Academy of Diplomacy.
 
Cohen received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the City College of New York (1953) and a master’s degree in international relations from the American University (1962).
 
Cohen’s honors and awards include the French Legion of Honor, the Belgian Order of Leopold II, the U.S. Foreign Service rank of Career Ambassador, and the Townsend Harris Distinguished Alumni Award of the City College of New York. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy.

Ambassador Richard N. Gardner, Ph.D.

Professor, Columbia Law School

Richard N. Gardner, professor of law and international organization at Columbia Law School, is also senior counsel to Morgan Lewis, a global law firm. He is a former U.S. ambassador to Italy (1977–1981) and Spain (1993–1997). During his service in Spain, he received the Thomas Jefferson Award for his contributions to U.S. citizens abroad. From 1961 to 1965, he served as deputy assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs.

Gardner was a member of the President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations and a U.S. delegate to the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization in 1999. In 2000, he was a public delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, and he has served as a special advisor to the United Nations on environmental matters. He is currently a member of the Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy.

Gardner received his law degree from Yale Law School; a doctorate in economics from Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar; and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard. His Oxford thesis, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy, has been described as the “classic” study of Anglo-American economic collaboration in the creation of the Bretton Woods institutions and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. He is the author of four other books and numerous articles on international affairs.

Gardner is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of Grupo Santander of Spain and vice president of the American Ditchley Foundation.