Michael O'Hanlon

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	To oppose or discuss a nomination, please go to CZ:Proposed for deletion and follow the instructions. For the monthly nomination lists, see Category:Articles for deletion. Michael O'Hanlon is Senior fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in U.S. defense strategy, the use of military force, homeland security and American foreign policy. He is Director of Research in Foreign Policy and 21st Century Defense Initiative, and holds the Sydney Stein, Jr. Chair. He is a member of the United States Department of State|State Department's International Security Advisory Board, United States Department of State and of the advisory council, Center for a New American Security, and is a visiting lecturer at Princeton University. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations. Counterinsurgency In May 2009, he coauthored a Brookings study on how to assess the progress in counterinsurgency and peace operations. One is that the current Afghanistan strategy of the Obama administration is rightly focused on population security—and, more generally, improving the lives of normal citizens—as well as Afghan institution building. Moreover, because absolute levels of violence in Afghanistan are far less severe than they were until recently in Iraq, or many other countries engulfed by civil war, there may be time to pursue this strategy without seeing the country ripped apart in the meantime. However, we also conclude that it may take well into 2010 to see if this generally sound strategy is actually working—especially since the resources being devoted to the task are at the lower end of what such missions have generally required to be successful. He has written sympathetically of the problems faced by commanders in the Afghanistan War (2001-2021), describing General Stanley McChrystal's public positions as reasonable concern for his troops. Of the removal of GEN David McKiernan, he said "Basically, McKiernan did a good job, but they need someone that they think can do an excellent job. In normal times, that would not be reason enough to relieve a four-star [general]. But, of course, these aren't ordinary times." With Jane Harman, he wrote that additional troops to Afghanistan had to be tied to Afghan government progress on reducing corruption. They see corruption, specifically including fraud in the 2009 Afghanistan presidential election, as the most serious issue facing effective governance there. Previous career Defense and Foreign Policy Analyst, National Security Division, Congressional Budget Office (1989-94) Research Assistant, Institute for Defense Analyses Peace Corps Volunteer, Congo Education Ph.D. (1991), M.A. (1988), M.S.E. (1987), A.B. (1982), Princeton University References