Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. His areas of specialization are Iran, the Persian Gulf, and U.S. foreign policy. He is also a contributing editor of the National Interest.

Dr. Takeyh was previously professor of national security studies at the National War College; professor and director of studies at the Near East and South Asia Center, National Defense University; fellow in international security studies at Yale University; fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Takeyh is currently working on a book entitled The Guardians of the Revolution: Iran’s Approach to the World (under contract by Oxford University Press). He is the author of a number of previous books including Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic (Times Books, 2006) and The Origins of the Eisenhower Doctrine: The U.S., Britain and Nasser’s Egypt, 1953–1957 (MacMillan Press, 2000). Dr. Takeyh has published widely, including articles in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the National Interest, Survival, World Policy Journal, Washington Quarterly, Orbis, Middle East Journal, Political Science Quarterly, and Middle East Policy. His commentary has also been featured in many newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, and International Herald Tribune.

Dr. Takeyh has testified frequently at various congressional committees and has appeared on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The Charlie Rose Show, NBC, CBS, CNN, BBC, FOX, and C-SPAN.

Dr. Takeyh earned a doctorate in modern history from Oxford University.

The September 11 attacks and the war in Iraq have raised a number of questions about U.S. intelligence.
• Why did the intelligence community fail to prevent 9/11?
• How do policymakers use intelligence to make decisions about war and peace?
• Should Americans be willing to sacrifice their civil liberties in the name of national security?

Richard Betts explores these questions and others in his critically-acclaimed recent book, "Enemies of Intelligence."

Betts is the Arnold Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies in the Department of Political Science, the director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies, and the director of the International Security Policy Program in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Betts has taught at Harvard University and was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution until 1990. A former staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the National Security Council, and the Walter Mondale presidential campaign, Betts has been a consultant to the National Intelligence Council and Central Intelligence Agency.

On Saturday, April 12, the Leadership Studies Program at Williams College will bring together leading intelligence scholars to discuss Betts's work and offer insights about the future of U.S. intelligence. The conference will feature a range of academic experts along with representatives from the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The public is invited and the event is free.

Saturday, April 12 – Griffin Hall, room 3

9:00-10:30 - Intelligence and Foreign Policy Chair: Joshua Rovner, Williams College; James Wirtz, Naval Postgraduate School; Paul Pillar, Georgetown University; Thomas Mahnken, Department of Defense; Glenn Hastedt, James Madison University

10:45-12:15 - Surprise Attack and Intelligence Reform Chair: Richard Gid Powers, College of Staten Island; Richard Russell, National Defense University; Arthur Hulnick, Boston University; Stephen Marrin, Mercyhurst College; Erik Dahl, Harvard University

2:15-3:45 –Secrecy and Democracy Chair: Stephanie Kaplan, MIT; James Bruce, RAND; David Kaiser, Naval War College; Ted Gup, Case Western Reserve University

The conference is sponsored by both the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy and the Leadership Studies Program at Williams.

Saturday, March 8 – Griffin Hall, Room 3 9-10:30 AM: Roundtable #1--"Japanese Strategy in the Pacific" Chair: Waldo Heinrichs, Temple University Panelists: James Wood, Williams College; Richard Frank, Independent Scholar; Edward Drea, U.S. Army Center for Military History, retired; Mark Parillo, Kansas State University

10:45-12:15 PM: Roundtable # 2—"Allied Airpower Strategies" Chair: Malcolm Muir, Virginia Military Institute Panelists: Conrad Crane, US Army Military History Institute; Tami Davis Biddle, Army War College; Reina Pennington, Norwich University

1:45-3:15 PM: Roundtable #3—"Allied Strategic and Diplomatic Relations" Chair: Arnold Offner, Lafayette College Panelists: Frank Costigliola, University of Connecticut; Randall Woods, University of Arkansas; Theodore Wilson, University of Kansas; J. Garry Clifford, University of Connecticut

3:30-5:00 PM: Roundtable #4—"What Remains to be Done?" Chair: Mark Stoler, Williams College Panelists: Gerhard Weinberg, University of North Carolina; Allan Millett, University of New Orleans; Raymond Callahan, University of Delaware

Additional Conference Participants: Andrew Buchanan, University of Vermont; Marc Gallicchio, Villanova University; Gian Gentile, US Military Academy; Meredith Hindley, American University; Timothy Jackson, Naval War College; Paul Miles, Princeton University; Galen Perras, University of Ottowa; Kurt Piehler, University of Tennessee; Michael Pavelec, Naval War College; Steven Ross, Naval War College; Nick Sarantakes, Naval War College; Douglas Smith, Naval War College; Roger Spiller, US Military Academy; Robert VanMeter, Skidmore College; Steven Waddell, US Military Academy; David Woolner, Marist College and FDR Library

This conference is sponsored by the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy and the Program in Leadership Studies.

Rick Atkinson the best-selling author of The Long Gray Line, a narrative account about West Point’s class of 1966; Crusade, a narrative history of the Persian Gulf War; and An Army at Dawn, the first volume in the Liberation Trilogy, a narrative history of the American Army in North Africa, Italy, and Western Europe during the Second World War. His book about the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq, In the Company of Soldiers, was published in March 2004. The second volume of the Liberation Trilogy, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, was published in Oct. 2007. The New York Times called it “a triumph of narrative history, elegantly written…and rooted in the sight and sounds of battle."

Atkinson’s awards include the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting; the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for public service, awarded to The Post for a series of investigative articles directed and edited by Atkinson on shootings by the District of Columbia police department; the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for history; and the 1989 George Polk Award for national reporting. Atkinson is on extended book leave from The Washington Post, where his most recent assignments were covering the 101st Airborne Division during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and writing about roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007.

Dr Yoav Alon is a senior lecturer in modern history of the Middle East at Tel Aviv University. He wrote his doctoral thesis in Oxford University on the creation of the modern Jordanian state under the British mandate and the integration of the tribal population into the modern structures of the new state. He teaches, researches, lectures and publishes on topics such as Jordanian history and politics, the British Empire in the Middle East, the Palestine mandate and tribal societies in the modern Middle East. His book The Making of Jordan: Tribes, Colonialism and the Modern State has been published in London by IB Tauris earlier this year.

John Burns is currently London Bureau Chief for the New York Times. He is the longest-serving foreign correspondent in The New York Times' history, having worked for more than 30 years on assignment in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Among his many awards, Burns has won two Pulitzer prizes: in 1993 for his coverage of the siege and destruction of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, and again in 1997 for his coverage of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan.This event is free but tickets are required. Contact the '62 Center box office to reserve tickets: 413-597-2425. Box office hours are Tues.-Fri. 1-5 p.m. Sponsored by the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy and the Leadership Studies Program.

Mark A. Stoler is Professor of History at the University of Vermont. He earned his B.A. at the City College of New York and his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of The Politics of the Second Front: American Military Planning and Diplomacy in Coalition Warfare, 1941-1943 (1977), George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century (1989) and Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II (2000), which won the 2002 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History. He is co-author of Explorations in American History: A Skills Approach (1987), Major Problems in the History of World War II (2002), and Debating Franklin D. Roosevelt's Foreign Policies, 1933-1945 (2005). His most recent monograph is Allies in War: Britain and America against the Axis Powers, 1940-1945.

Since 1970, Stoler has taught at the University of Vermont, where he has been honored for his scholarship with the University Scholar Award (1993), as well as his teaching, with the George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award (1984), the Dean's Lecture Award (1992), and the Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award (2006). In addition, he held the Harold K. Johnson Visiting Chair at the U.S. Military History Institute in Carlisle, PA in 2004-5. He has also served as a visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Naval War College, and at the University of Haifa in Israel under the Fulbright Program. Stoler has served on the SHAFR Council (2000-2002), the nominating committee (1991-1994), the annual conference planning committee (1989-1990), the Bernath Book Prize committee (1988-1991), and the membership committee (1974-1984). Other service includes a term on the Board of Editors for Diplomatic History (1986-1989) as well as the Army's Historical Advisory Committee (1996-2000). Stoler currently serves on the Board of Directors for the World War II Studies Association and the Board of Trustees of the Society for Military History.

You can e-mail him at: Mark.Stoler@uvm.edu

Saturday, March 3, 2007 9:00 am - 4:00 pm Griffin 3, Williams College

9:00-10:45 am Assessing Triumph Forsaken Chair: William Stueck - University of Georgia KC Johnson - Brooklyn College/CUNY Grad Center David Kaiser - Williams/ Naval War College Mark Lawrence – Yale/UT Austin Keith Taylor – Cornell University

11:00 am - 12:45 pm Ngo Dinh Diem and South Vietnam Reconsidered�? Chair: Seth Jacobs - Boston College Philip Catton - Stephen F. Austin University Jessica Chapman - UC Santa Barbara Matthew Masur - St. Anselm College Edward Miller - Dartmouth College

2:00 - 2:30 pm Is Iraq Another Vietnam A lecture by Robert Brigham – Vassar College

2:30 – 4:00 pm Roundtable Discussion on Vietnam and Iraq�? Chair: Ronald Frankum - Millersville University J. Gary Clifford - Univ. of Connecticut Richard Immerman - Temple University Doug MacDonald – Colgate University Stephen Morris - Johns Hopkins University

Sponsored by the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy and the History Department