Frederick Kagan

Frederick W. Kagan (born March 1970) is an American resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and a former professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He earned a B.A. in Soviet and East European studies and a Ph.D. in Russian and Soviet military history, both from Yale University. He worked as an Assistant professor of military history at West Point from 1995-2001 and as an Associate professor of military history from 2001-2005. The courses he taught at West Point included the history of military art, grand strategy, revolutionary warfare and diplomatic history. He is brother to foreign policy analyst Robert Kagan. Frederick Kagan is married to Kimberly Kagan, Assistant Professor of History at West Point and Executive Director of the [http://understandingwar.org/ Institute for the Study of War] . Frederick Kagan and his father Donald Kagan, who is a professor at Yale and a fellow at the Hudson Institute, together authored "While America Sleeps: Self-Delusion, Military Weakness, and the Threat to Peace Today" (2000). The book argued in favor of a large increase in military spending and warned of future threats, including from a potential revival of Iraq's WMD program. [cite news |first=Philip |last=Kennicott |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Yale Historian Donald Kagan, Mixing the Old And the Neo |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/13/AR2005051300041_pf.html |work=Washington Post |date=2005-05-13 |accessdate=2007-01-19 ] Frederick along with his brother Robert Kagan, who is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, and their father Donald are all signatories to the neoconservative Project for the New American Century manifesto titled "Rebuilding America's Defenses" (2000). [cite web |url=http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf |title=Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New American Century |accessdate=2007-01-19 |last=Donnelly |first=Thomas |authorlink=Thomas Donnelly |coauthors="et al." |year=2000 |month=September |format=PDF |publisher=Project for the New American Century |pages=78 ]

Kagan authored the "real Iraq Study Group" report as the AEI's rival to the ISG report of James Baker and Lee H. Hamilton in December 2006. The AEI report, titled "Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq", was released on January 5, 2007, and Kagan was said to have won-over the ear of President George W. Bush, [cite news |first=Mark |last=Benjamin |title=The real Iraq Study Group |url=http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/01/06/aei/ |work=salon.com |date=2007-01-06 |accessdate=2007-01-19 ] strongly influencing his subsequent "surge" plan for changing the course of the Iraq War. Along with retired Gen. Jack Keane, retired Col Joel Armstrong, and retired Maj Daniel Dwyer, Kagan is credited as one of the "intellectual architects" of the surge plan. [cite news |first=Peter |last=Beinart |authorlink=Peter Beinart |title=Bush's 'surge' could deep-six McCain's 2008 presidential hopes |url=http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/012007/01182007/251062/printer_friendly |work=The Free Lance—Star |date=2007-01-18 |accessdate=2007-01-19 ]

Criticism

Frederick Kagan's analysis on the causes of the reduction in violence in Iraq in 2007 have been the subject of much criticism. In a report entitled "Iraq: The Way Ahead," Kagan remarks that "one of the persistent myths about the reasons for the success of coalition efforts in 2007 is that the killing stopped because the sectarian cleansing was completed. This myth is absolutely false. Baghdad remains a mixed city" [http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/03/25/kagan-cleansing-myth/] . This claim, however, is contested by major media outlets such as the Washington Post as well as the the U.S. military's own data. [http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/03/25/kagan-cleansing-myth/] . Maps produced by the Washington Post demonstrate that from April 2006 to November 2007, the number of mixed Sunni-Shi'ite neighborhoods in Baghdad declined drastically due to sectarian cleansing [http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/03/25/kagan-cleansing-myth/] The August 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq adds that where "conflict levels have diminished," it was due to sectarian "separation." [http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/03/25/kagan-cleansing-myth/]

Frederick Kagan is a David Rubenstein Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany, for 2008.__NOTOC__

References

External links

* [http://www.aei.org/scholars/filter.all,scholarID.99/scholar.asp AEI profile]
*Fred Kagan's site, [http://understandingwar.org/ Understanding War]
* [http://cryptome.org/rad.htm#PROJECT%20PARTICIPANTS "Rebuilding America's Defenses"] (2000)

Transcript

*"PBS NewsHour": [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june08/surge_03-11.html "As Violence Peaks and Dips, Debate Over 'Surge' Persists"] (March 11, 2008) Kagan, an architect of the Iraq "surge" strategy, debates the outcome of that strategy with journalist Nir Rosen.

ee also

*Napoleon I of France bibliography#Related history