On March 5, 2017 Divergent Options assembled a five person Strategic Advisory Board to help guide and inspire our work. Though they have extremely busy lives, we were fortunate to receive advice and assistance from Janine Davidson, Nate Freier, Stephen Rosen, Kori Schake, and Tamara Cofman Wittes. Divergent Options would not be where we are today without our Strategic Advisors, and for that we say thank you!
Today marks the end of the two-year time period that our Strategic Advisors agreed to serve. Divergent Options wishes each of our Strategic Advisors well and looks forward to continued contact with them in the future.
Janine Davidson is the president of Metropolitan State University of Denver. A former Air Force officer and pilot, she served in the Barack Obama administration as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for plans and, most recently, as the 32nd Under Secretary of the U.S. Navy.
Mr. Nathan P. Freier is an Associate Professor of National Security Studies with the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI). He came to SSI in August 2013 after 5 years with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) where he was a senior fellow in the International Security Program. Mr. Freier joined CSIS in April 2008 after completing a 20-year career in the U.S. Army. His last military assignment was as Director of National Security Affairs at SSI. From August 2008 to July 2012, Mr. Freier also served as a visiting research professor in strategy, policy, and risk assessment at the U.S. Army War College’s (USAWC) Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) under the provisions of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act. Mr. Freier is a veteran of numerous strategy development and strategic planning efforts at Headquarters (HQ), Department of the Army; the Office of the Secretary of Defense; and two senior-level military staffs in Iraq. Mr. Freier has been published widely on a range of national security issues and continues to provide expert advice to the national security and defense communities. His areas of expertise are defense strategy, military strategy and policy development, as well as strategic net and risk assessment. Mr. Freier holds master’s degrees in both international relations and politics, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College.
Stephen P. Rosen is the Beton Michael Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs at Harvard University, where he has also been a Harvard College Professor, the Master of Winthrop House, and Director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. He was the civilian assistant to the director, Net Assessment, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Director of Political-Military Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council, and a professor in the Strategic Department at the Naval War College. He participated in the President’s Commission on Integrated Long Term Strategy, and in the Gulf War Air Power Survey sponsored by the Secretary of the Air Force, and he has published widely on nuclear proliferation, ballistic missile defense, limited war, and the American national character as it affects foreign policy. His first book, Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military (Cornell University Press, 1994), won the 1992 Furniss Prize. His subsequent books are Societies and Military Power: India and its Armies (Cornell University Press, 1996) and War and Human Nature (Princeton University Press, 2004). Rosen received his A.B. and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Dr. Kori Schake is Deputy Director-General of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She is the editor, with Jim Mattis, of the book Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military. She teaches Thinking About War at Stanford, is a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine, and a contributor to War on the Rocks. Her history of the Anglo-American hegemonic transition is forthcoming (2017) from Harvard University Press.
She has served as a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and in various policy roles including at the White House for the National Security Council; at the Department of Defense for the Office of the Secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff and the State Department for the Policy Planning Staff. During the 2008 presidential election, she was Senior Policy Advisor on the McCain-Palin campaign.
She has been profiled in publications ranging from national news to popular culture including the Los Angeles Times, Politico, and Vogue Magazine.
Her recent publications include: Republican Foreign Policy After Trump (Survival, Fall 2016), National Security Challenges for the Next President (Orbis, Winter 2017), Will Washington Abandon the Order?, (Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2017).
Tamara Cofman Wittes is a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. Wittes served as the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs from 2009 to 2012. She also oversaw the Middle East Partnership Initiative and served as the deputy special coordinator for Middle East transitions, organizing the U.S. government’s response to the Arab awakening. Wittes is a co-host of Rational Security, a weekly podcast on foreign policy and national security issues. She wrote Freedom’s Unsteady March: America’s Role in Building Arab Democracy and edited How Israelis and Palestinians Negotiate: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Oslo Peace Process. She serves on the board of the National Democratic Institute.