About Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs
Scowcroft Institute of International AffairsMission
“We live in an era of tremendous global change, policy makers will confront unfamiliar challenges, new opportunities, and difficult choices in the years ahead. I look forward to the Scowcroft Institute supporting policy-relevant research that will contribute to our understanding of these changes, illuminating their implications for our national interest, and fostering lively exchanges about how the United States can help shape a world that best serves our interests and reflects our values.”
– LT. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, USAF (RET.)
The Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) is a research institute housed in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. The Institute is named in honor of Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, USAF (Ret.), whose long and distinguished career in public service included serving as National Security Advisor for Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. The Institute’s core mission is to foster and disseminate policy-oriented research on international affairs by supporting faculty and student research, hosting international speakers and major scholarly conferences, and providing grants to outside researchers to use the holdings of the Bush Library.
Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft
Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft, USAF (Ret.), was one of the nation’s preeminent authorities on international policy. He was the founder and President of The Forum for International Policy, a non-partisan, non-profit organization providing independent analyses and perspectives on major foreign policy issues. He was also President of The Scowcroft Group, Inc., an international business advisory firm.
General Scowcroft served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. He also served as Military Assistant to President Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs to Presidents Ford and Nixon. Prior to joining the Bush Administration, General Scowcroft was Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc.
In the course of his military career, General Scowcroft held positions in the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Headquarters of the U.S. Air Force; and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. Other assignments included faculty positions at the U. S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and Assistant Air Attaché at the American Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
General Scowcroft served as a Director of the Qualcomm Corporation and on the University of California President’s Council on the National Laboratories. He served as chairman of the American-Turkish Council, president of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation and was chairman of the Atlantic Council. He was also a member of the board of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, the George C. Marshall Foundation, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the International Republican Institute, the National Defense University, and the American Council on Germany. He also served on the Advisory Board of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
General Scowcroft chaired or served on a number of policy advisory councils, including the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board; the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change; the Eisenhower Institute; the President’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control; the President’s Commission on Strategic Forces; the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management; the Defense Policy Board; and the President’s Special Review Board (Tower Board) investigating the Iran-Contra affair.
General Scowcroft had an aeronautical rating as a pilot and had numerous military decorations and awards. In addition, President George H. W. Bush presented him with the Medal of Freedom Award in 1991, the nation’s highest civilian award. In 1993, he was made an Honorary Knight of the British Empire (K.B.E.) by Queen Elizabeth II.
General Scowcroft was born in Ogden, Utah on March 19, 1925. He received his undergraduate degree and commission into the Army Air Forces from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he was recognized as a Distinguished Graduate. He received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University. He also was the recipient of honorary degrees from the National Defense University; the Medical University of South Carolina; Brigham Young University; the University of Utah; the College of William and Mary; Columbia University; DePaul University; and George Washington University.
General Scowcroft was married to the late Marian Horner Scowcroft and had a daughter Karen Scowcroft and a granddaughter Meghan Scowcroft. He passed away on August 6, 2020, in Virginia, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery alongside his wife.
Scowcroft Staff
John T. Hennessey-Niland
Director Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs
Monica Holder
Assistant Director Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs
Richard J. Golsan
University Distinguished Professor, Director of the French InstituteKassandra Maduzia
Administrative Coordinator Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs
Josh Wentzel
Assistant Director, Biosecurity and Pandemic Policy Center
Benjamin Snyder
Research Assistant, Biosecurity and Pandemic Policy CenterAdvisory Board | Scowcroft Institute
Hon. Virginia A. Mulberger
Hon. Virginia Mulberger was a founding Principal and the Managing Director of The Scowcroft Group. Prior to forming The Scowcroft Group, Ms. Mulberger served four years in the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Legislative Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. In that capacity, she was responsible for the integration and implementation of national security legislative strategies for the Executive Branch.
Preceding her White House tour, Ms. Mulberger was a Principal with DGA, International, a Washington-based consulting firm. With DGA, International, she assisted European corporations in strategic planning, marketing, joint ventures and technology transfer. From 1974 to 1983, Ms. Mulberger served as an active duty Air Force Officer in Air Force intelligence and legislative affairs positions. She completed her active duty service as Deputy Director, Air Force Senate Liaison. She fulfilled the remainder of her Air Force career as a Reserve Officer in international security assistance, retiring in 1996. Ms. Mulberger received her Masters degree from Georgetown University in National Security Studies. She is a Vice Chairman of The Atlantic Council of the United States and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Karen Scowcroft
Karen Scowcroft is a Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel with First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company, focusing principally on commercial equipment financing and energy financing. Prior to First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company’s acquisition of CIT Group Inc., Ms. Scowcroft was a Director and Senior Counsel with CIT Group Inc., where she specialized in domestic and cross border commercial aerospace financing, energy financing and workouts. From 1984 to 1993, Ms. Scowcroft was an associate with the law firm Dewey Ballantine where she concentrated on domestic and cross border shipping and aerospace financing and project financing.
Ms. Scowcroft received her Master’s Degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and her J.D. from Columbia Law School. She is a Trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and serves as a judge for the Foundation’s annual journalism award for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense.
Chad Hesters
Chad Hesters is a globally recognized leadership advisor with expertise in guiding complex organizations through dynamic markets and geopolitical uncertainty. With extensive experience in international consulting organizations and earlier experience in corporate finance, strategic planning, and as a U.S. Naval Intelligence Officer, he brings a rare combination of strategic, operational, and cross-cultural insight. As President and CEO of Boyden, he leads a global organization across 45 countries, driving the firm’s growth in leadership advisory services. Much of his career experience has been focused on the critical international business industries of Energy and Natural Resources. Mr. Hesters holds a Bachelors degree from Texas A&M University, an MBA from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and has completed executive programs at Harvard Business School and the Yale School of Management.
Bruce Hoffman
Bruce Hoffman has been studying terrorism and insurgency for 50 years. He is a professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he was previously the director of its Center for Jewish Civilization and prior to that the director of its Center for Security Studies and Security Studies Masters of Arts Degree Program. Hoffman was appointed a commissioner on the 9/11 Review Commission by the U.S. Congress and has been Scholar-in-Residence for Counterterrorism at the Central Intelligence Agency; adviser on counterterrorism to the Coalition Provisional Authority, Baghdad, Iraq; and, adviser on counterinsurgency to Multi-National Forces-Iraq Headquarters, Baghdad, Iraq. He is a recipient of the United States Intelligence Community Seal Medallion, the highest level of commendation given to a non-government employee. Hoffman is the author and co-author of the award-winning books, Anonymous Soldiers (2015) and God, Guns, and Sedition (2024). A fourth edition of Hoffman’s renowned work, Inside Terrorism, cited as one of the 25 most notable books published by Columbia University Press, is forthcoming. Hoffman received his B.A. in government and history from Connecticut College and the B.PhIl. and D.Phil. degrees in international relations from Oxford University.
Col J.P. McDonough (Ex Officio)
A career artillery officer, McDonough was posted across the globe, commanding every level of Marine artillery, from platoon to regiment. His deployments include the initial entry into Afghanistan in December 2001 as part of Operations Swift Freedom and Enduring Freedom, as well as a deployment to Afghanistan as an advisor team leader with the Afghan National Army in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from 2009 to 2010.
McDonough’s staff and joint tours include multiple tours in the Pentagon, as well as in the Marine Corps Training and Education Command, as both an instructor and a modeling and simulation analyst.
McDonough most recently served as the 89th commandant of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy from June 2021 to June 2024.
McDonough’s decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, and various unit and service awards. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1994. He earned a master’s degree in modeling, virtual environments and simulation from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2005. He graduated with distinction from the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy at the National Defense University in 2014.