CHESTERTOWN, MD—Michael O’Hanlon, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute, will focus on the challenges the United States faces in the Middle East and Africa when he speaks at Washington College on Thursday, April 17.  His talk, “Why the U.S. Can’t Disengage from the Middle East (and Why It Shouldn’t from Africa),” will take place at 5:00 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, Toll Science Center, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. Sponsored by the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, it is free and open to the public. 

At the Brookings Institute, a prominent non-profit think tank based in the nation’s capital, O’Hanlon is a senior fellow with the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, director of research for the Foreign Policy program, and co-author of the Afghanistan Index. He concentrates on U.S. defense strategy, the use of military force, and American foreign policy. He also serves as a visiting lecturer at Princeton University, an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. 

Prior to joining the Brookings Institute, O’Hanlon was an analyst at the Congressional Budget office from 1989-1994 and a volunteer for the Peace Corps in Congo/Kinshasa (the former Zaire) from 1982-1984. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the physical sciences and a doctorate in public and international affairs, all from Princeton. He has written numerous books, most recently Healing the Wounded Giant: Maintaining Military Preeminence while Cutting the Defense Budget (Brookings Institution Press 2013), as well as hundreds of newspaper op-eds. He also has made some 2,000 TV and radio appearances since September 11, 2001.

The Louis L. Goldstein Program in Public Affairs was established in 1990 to encourage students to enter public service by introducing them to exemplary leaders, both in and out of government.

–Kathryn Gilley ’14