Frederick W. Kagan (born 1970) is an American resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and a former

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

military history Military history is the study of War, armed conflict in the Human history, history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to Politics, local and international relationship ...

at the U.S. Military Academy at

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

Career

He and his father, Donald Kagan, who was a professor at Yale and a fellow at the Hudson Institute, co-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 Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

weapons of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a Biological agent, biological, chemical weapon, chemical, Radiological weapon, radiological, nuclear weapon, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill or significantly harm many people or cause great dam ...

program. Frederick and Robert Kagan, who is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, and their father, Donald, were all signatories to the Project for the New American Century manifesto, ''Rebuilding America's Defenses'' (2000).

Influence

Kagan authored the "real Iraq Study Group" report as the American Enterprise Institute's rival to the Iraq Study Group report of James Baker and Lee H. Hamilton in December 2006. The AEI report, ''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 George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

, strongly influencing his subsequent "surge" plan for changing the course of the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

. Along with retired General Jack Keane, retired Colonel Joel Armstrong, and retired Major Daniel Dwyer, Kagan is credited as one of the "intellectual architects" of the surge plan. According to ''Foreign Policy'' magazine, Kagan's essay "We're Not the Soviets in Afghanistan" influenced the strategic thinking of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, which reportedly influenced Gates's decision to support sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. Remarking on the surge in 2015, Kagan said that while the AEI group convened that "it never occurred to me or anybody that was involved in this that we were going to affect policy. It was simply 'Maybe we can put some concrete numbers on the table, some concrete enemy on a map, some concrete units on a grid, and force other people who want to have this discussion to wrestle with the specifics of the problem.'"

Advising David Petraeus

In 2010, U.S. Army General David H. Petraeus, who was appointed by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

to head international forces in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, hired Kagan as one of two experts on fighting corruption. An article in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' on December 19, 2012, discussed the relationship that the Kagans had with General Petraeus and, to a much lesser extent, with his successor in July 2011, General John R. Allen. It discussed various visits made by the Kagans from mid-2010, including their having been given access to the Combined Joint Intelligence Operations Center in Petraeus's headquarters. It commented on and raised questions about their sponsorship by defense contractors through the American Enterprise Institute. It also detailed how the Kagans had become involved in Iraq in 2007 under an initiative by General Stanley A. McChrystal, who was their first introduction to Afghanistan in 2010.

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

Kagan has regularly contributed to daily reports by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. The ISW was founded by his wife, Kimberly Kagan.

Bibliography

* * edited with Robin D. S. Higham * edited with Robin D. S. Higham * edited with Christian Kubik * * * with Thomas Donnelly * edited with Thomas Donnelly

Recent publications

Articles

"China has three roads to Taiwan: The US must block them all", ''The Hill'', March 13, 2023 (co-authored with Dan Blumenthal)

References

External links

AEI profile
* (2000) * "PBS NewsHour"

(March 11, 2008) Kagan, an architect of the Iraq "surge" strategy, debates the outcome of that strategy with journalist Nir Rosen. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kagan, Frederick 1970 births Living people American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent American military historians Jewish American historians Yale University alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American Enterprise Institute 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American Jews