Kori Schake

Kori Schake is a senior fellow and the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Before joining AEI, Dr. Schake was the deputy director-general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. She has had a distinguished career in government, working at the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Security Council at the White House. She was also a senior policy advisor on the 2008 McCain campaign. She has taught at Stanford, West Point, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and the University of Maryland, and is currently the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress.

Dr. Schake is the author of five books: “The State and the Soldier: a History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States” (2025); “America vs the West: Can the Liberal World Order Be Preserved?” (2018); “Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American Hegemony” (2017); “State of Disrepair: Fixing the Culture and Practices of the State Department” (2012); and “Managing American Hegemony: Essays on Power in a Time of Dominance” (2009).

She is also the coeditor, along with former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, of “Warriors & Citizens: American Views of Our Military” (2016).

Dr. Schake has been widely published in policy journals and the popular press, including in CNN.com, Foreign Affairs, Politico, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and War on the Rocks.

Dr. Schake has a PhD and MA in government and politics from the University of Maryland, as well as an MPM from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. Her BA in international relations is from Stanford University.