Eliot A. Cohen

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Eliot A. Cohen

Eliot A. Cohen (born April 3, 1956 in Boston , Massachusetts ) is the Robert E. Osgood Professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), which is part of Johns Hopkins University . Cohen is Director of the Strategic Studies Division at SAIS, specializing in the Middle East , Arms Control and NATO . He is a member of the Project for the New American Century and has been described as "the most influential neoconservative in the university landscape ". From March 2007 to January 2009 he was a senior counselor in the United States Department of State .

Life

Cohen attended the Maimonides School in Brookline . He received his BA in Political Science (Government) from Harvard University in 1977 , where he also received his Ph.D. received in political science. During his PhD, he completed the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . From 1982 to 1985 he was Assistant Professor of Government and Assistant Dean at Harvard. He then taught strategy at Naval War College for four years . In 1990 he worked briefly on the US Secretary of Defense's policy brief and took up his position at SAIS in the same year. After the Second Gulf War in 1990/91, he conducted the United States Air Force's Gulf War Air Power Survey , for which he received the Air Force's Exemplary Civilian Service Award. This analysis of the efficiency of the US Air Force is often referred to in the concept of the revolution in military affairs .

When the Project for the New American Century was created in early 1997, Cohen was a founding member. Since President George W. Bush took office , he sat on the Defense Policy Board Advisor Committee, a commission of the US Department of Defense consisting of civilian members and off-duty officers. According to his own statement, he owes this job to Richard Perle , who praised his name as chairman. In the run-up to the Iraq war , Cohen served on the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq , an NGO that pushed for an invasion.

In March 2007 he was appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as her advisor in the State Department, where he replaced Philip D. Zelikow .

Political positions

US foreign policy

Cohen was one of the first to advocate a war against Iraq and Iran. In a 2001 comment for the Wall Street Journal , he called the war on terror "World War Four" and described regime change in Iran as wise, moral, and unpopular with some allies. He also compared the importance of such an undertaking to the capture of Osama bin Laden . In another article in 2001 he again recommended a war against Iraq and even described this plan as effortlessly feasible, whereby the Iraqi National Congress with the support of the US Army could bring about the overthrow of Saddam Hussein . Cohen also linked Hussein to terrorism, the 9/11 attacks and an assassination attempt on George Bush . Regarding Iraq, he further claimed that only the Iraqis, not their government, suffered from the sanctions and that Saddam continues to collect weapons of mass destruction material by circumventing the sanctions imposed by Russia , China and France . He defended the military mission even after his son was sent to Iraq with the army.

The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy

The essay The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by political scientists Stephen M. Walt and John J. Mearsheimer was heavily criticized by Cohen. In an editorial in the Washington Post , he described him as anti-Semitic because it used irrational prejudices against Jews who portray them as disloyal, subversive and fraudulent. According to the article, the Jews had almost occult powers and would secretly influence public policy, which would then run counter to the real interests of the country. Mearsheimer and Walt replied that their only aim was to criticize the policies of the State of Israel and the American-Jewish lobby.

bibliography

  • Citizens and Soldiers: The Dilemmas of Military Service (1985) ISBN 0801497191 .
  • Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War, Free Press, 1990, ISBN 0-02-906060-5 .
  • With Thomas A. Keaney, Gulf War Air Power Survey Summary Report, United States Government Printing, 1993, ISBN 0-16-041950-6 .
  • With Keaney, Revolution in Warfare ?: Air Power in the Persian Gulf, Naval Institute Press, 1995, ISBN 1-55750-131-9
  • Knives, Tanks, and Missiles: Israel's Security Revolution, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1998, ISBN 0-944029-72-8 .
  • Editor alongside John Bayliss, et al. Strategy in the Contemporary World: Introduction to Strategic Studies, Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-19-878273-X .
  • With Andrew Bacevich , War Over Kosovo, Columbia University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-231-12482-1 .
  • Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime, Free Press, 2002, ISBN 0-7432-3049-3 .
  • A Clarifying Moment in American History , in: The Atlantic, January 29, 2017.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Ahmad Faruqui: Battling for the soul of the American republic . Asia Times Online , April 30, 2003, accessed November 16, 2016.
  2. ↑ Biography: Eliot A. Cohen. US Department of State , April 30, 2007, archived from the original on April 15, 2009 ; accessed on November 16, 2016 .
  3. ^ Brian Lamb: Eliot Cohen, Johns Hopkins University (SAIS), Strategic Studies Program, Director. Interview with Q&A , July 31, 2005, archived from the original on February 4, 2012 ; accessed on November 16, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Eliot A. Cohen: World War IV. Let's call this conflict what it is. Editorial in the Wall Street Journal on November 20, 2001, archived from the original on December 21, 2001 ; accessed on November 16, 2016 .
  5. ^ Eliot A. Cohen: Iraq can't resist us. The Gulf War was a cakewalk. The Enemy is even weaker now. Editorial in the Wall Street Journal on December 23, 2001, archived from the original on January 10, 2002 ; accessed on November 16, 2016 .
  6. ↑ John Walker Returns to United States; Will US Bring War on Terrorism to Iraq? CNN broadcast “Wolf Blitzer Reports”, January 23, 2002, accessed on November 16, 2016 (English).
  7. ^ Eliot A. Cohen: A Hawk Questions Himself as His Son Goes to War . The Washington Post , Second Thoughts, July 10, 2005, accessed November 16, 2016.
  8. ↑ John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt: The Israel Lobby. In: London Review of Books Volume 28, Issue 6 of March 23, 2006, pp. 3–12, written on March 10, 2006, accessed on November 16, 2016 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Cohen, Eliot A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American political scientist and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts