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Kori Schake
Kori Schake
Kori Schake
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Kori N. Schake (/ˈʃɑːki/ SHAH-kee;[1] born 1962) is an American international relations scholar currently serving as director of foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute. She has held several high-level positions in the U.S. Defense and State Departments and on the National Security Council. She was a foreign policy adviser to the McCain–Palin 2008 presidential campaign. Schake is a contributing writer at The Atlantic.[2] She serves on the board of advisors of Foreign Policy Research Institute[3] and the Alexander Hamilton Society.[4] Schake is a member of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee.[5]

Key Information

Education

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Schake obtained her PhD in government from the University of Maryland, where she was a student of Thomas Schelling and Catherine Kelleher. She holds an MA in government and politics from the University of Maryland and a MPA from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. She completed her undergraduate studies in international relations at Stanford University, where she studied under Condoleezza Rice.[6][7][8]

Career

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Pentagon

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Schake's first government job was with U.S. Department of Defense as a NATO desk officer in the Joint Staff's Strategic Plans and Policy Division (J-5), where from 1990 to 1994 she worked military issues of German unification, NATO after the Cold War, and alliance expansion.[9] She also spent two years (1994–1996) in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as the special assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Strategy and Requirements.[10]

National Security Council

[edit]

During President George W. Bush's first term, she was the director for defense strategy and requirements on the National Security Council.[11] She was responsible for interagency coordination for long-term defense planning and coalition maintenance issues. Projects she contributed to include conceptualizing and budgeting for continued transformation of defense practices, the most significant realignment of U.S. military forces and bases around the world since 1950, creating NATO's Allied Command Transformation and the NATO Response Force, and recruiting and retaining coalition partners for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.[9]

State Department

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Schake was the deputy director for policy planning in the U.S. State Department from December 2007 to May 2008.[9][11] Her responsibilities included staff management as well as resourcing and organizational effectiveness issues, including a study of State Department reforms that enable integrated political, economic, and military strategies.[9]

Academia

[edit]
Schake (far right) participating in a panel discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in June 2017

She has held the Distinguished Chair of International Security Studies at West Point, and also served in the faculties of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy, and the National Defense University.[9]

She was previously a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.[9][12][13] She blogs regularly for Shadow Government on Foreign Policy[14] and is on the editorial board of Orbis[15] and the board of Centre for European Reform. She is also commonly featured on the Deep State Radio podcast.[16] Schake advises Spirit of America, a 501(c)(3) organization that supports US troops.[17]

Trans-Atlantic Task Force

[edit]

Since 2019, Schake has also been serving on the Transatlantic Task Force of the German Marshall Fund and the Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung (BKHS), co-chaired by Karen Donfried and Wolfgang Ischinger.[18]

McCain–Palin campaign

[edit]

Schake left the State Department in order to serve as a senior policy advisor to the McCain–Palin 2008 presidential campaign, where she was responsible for policy development and outreach in the areas of foreign and defense policy.[19][20][21] Earlier in the campaign, she had been an adviser to Rudy Giuliani.[22]

In 2020, Kori endorsed Joe Biden for president.[23] On February 12, 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin appointed Schake as one of four departmental representatives to the Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense That Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.[24]

In 2020, Schake, along with over 130 other former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted that President Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "to that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next president of the United States, and we will vote for him."[25]

Personal life

[edit]

Schake was raised in a small town in Sonoma County, California, by her parents Cecelia and Wayne, a former Pan Am pilot. Kori has a brother and sister. Kristina Schake, her younger sister, has also worked in the White House and played key roles on Democratic presidential campaigns, working with Michelle Obama and on the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. Despite their political differences, they remain very close.[26]

Publications

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Books

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  • The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States, (Polity, 2025) ISBN 978-1-5095-7053-9
  • America vs the West: Can the Liberal World Order be preserved?, (Penguin Random House Australia, 2018) ISBN 978-0-1437-9536-0.
  • Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American Hegemony, (Harvard University Press, 2017) ISBN 978-0-674-97507-1

Articles

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  • Trump's Speech to Generals Was Incitement to Violence Against Americans, Foreign Policy, October 1, 2025[27]
  • Dispensable Nation: America in a Post-American World, Foreign Affairs, June 24, 2025[28]
  • Congress Must Constrain Trump, Foreign Policy, June 11, 2025[29]
  • Why Biden's Foreign Policy Fell Short, Foreign Policy, January 7, 2025[30]
  • The National Security Imperative for a Trump Presidency, Foreign Affairs, November 8, 2024[31]
  • North Korea Joining Russia's War Is a Sign of Weakness, Foreign Policy, November 5, 2024[32]
  • The Case for Conservative Internationalism, Foreign Affairs, December 4, 2023[33]
  • Biden's Foreign Policy is a Mess, Foreign Affairs, February 10, 2023[34]
  • America Must Spend More on Defense, Foreign Affairs, April 5, 2022[35]
  • Masters and Commanders Are Civil-Military Relations in Crisis?, Foreign Affairs, August 24, 2021[36]
  • The Roads Not Taken in Afghanistan, Foreign Affairs, August 25, 2021[37]
  • The Post-American Order, Foreign Affairs, October 21, 2020[38]
  • Back to Basics, Foreign Affairs, April 16, 2019[39]
  • "Choices for the Quadrennial Defense Review", Orbis, Summer 2009
  • NATO after the Cold War, 1991–1995: Institutional Competition and the Collapse of the French Alternative, Contemporary European History, November 1998[40]

Reports

[edit]

References

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[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Kori Schake

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Kori Schake is an American scholar and foreign policy analyst specializing in international security, defense strategy, and transatlantic relations. She holds a Ph.D. and has authored works on military history and hegemony transitions, including Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American Hegemony. Currently, she serves as a senior fellow and director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she leads research on U.S. national security challenges. Schake's government career includes roles at the U.S. State Department, Department of Defense, and , contributing to policy on defense budgets, alliances, and strategic planning during multiple administrations. She has also held academic positions, teaching courses on war and at institutions such as , Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Previously, she was deputy director-general of the (IISS) and a research fellow at the , focusing on civil-military relations and great-power competition. Her analyses emphasize the importance of military readiness, alliance cohesion, and deterrence against authoritarian regimes, as evidenced in her co-edited volume Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military with General James Mattis. Schake advised John McCain's presidential campaign on policy, reflecting her influence in Republican foreign policy circles. While affiliated with conservative-leaning institutions, her work draws on historical precedents and empirical assessments of power dynamics rather than ideological conformity.

Early Life and Education

Academic Background

Kori Schake earned a degree in from in 1985, during which she took a on Soviet politics taught by , sparking her interest in the field. Rice later hired Schake as her following graduation, providing early exposure to strategic analysis amid tensions. Schake subsequently pursued graduate studies at the University of , obtaining a Master of Arts in and , a Master of Public Management from the School of , and a PhD in and in 1995. Her doctoral dissertation examined during the crises of the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, analyzing alliance dynamics and in the context of NATO's challenges. This academic foundation emphasized empirical study of great-power competition and civil-military interactions, drawing on declassified archives and historical case studies to inform her understanding of deterrence and transatlantic security. Schake's work reflected influences from mid-20th-century strategic thinkers, prioritizing causal mechanisms in alliance cohesion over ideological abstractions.

Government Service

Department of Defense

Schake began her federal government service in the Department of Defense (DoD) in 1990 as a Desk Officer in the Joint Staff's Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate (J-5), where she managed the U.S. military's response to 's post-Cold War command restructuring following the fall of the . In this role, she coordinated interagency and allied inputs on alliance adaptation, emphasizing practical assessments of force posture amid shifting European security dynamics. From 1994 to 1996, Schake served as special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Requirements, and Resources in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, contributing to the development of U.S. defense strategy during the administration's Bottom-Up and early Quadrennial Defense preparations. Her work focused on aligning military requirements with budgetary realities, advocating for data-driven evaluations of readiness and capabilities rather than purely programmatic constraints. This period involved analyzing force structure needs for potential contingencies, including enlargement debates, and supporting resource allocation decisions grounded in operational metrics. Throughout her tenure, Schake's positions placed her at the intersection of strategic planning and policy implementation, where she prioritized empirical analysis of military effectiveness over ideological or institutional preferences, influencing internal debates on transformation and of U.S. forces. These early experiences informed her later emphasis on rigorous, evidence-based defense assessments, though specific outputs from this era remain classified or internal to DoD processes.

National Security Council

In this role on the staff during President George W. Bush's first term, Schake served as Director for Defense Strategy and Requirements from 2002 to 2005. Her responsibilities encompassed defense strategy and requirements, transformation of the U.S. armed forces, policy, alliance management, and the U.S. nuclear weapons posture. Schake contributed to interagency efforts on high-level policy coordination, including conceptualizing and budgeting for ongoing transformation of defense practices to adapt to post-9/11 threats. She advised on the most significant realignment of U.S. global defense posture since the War's end, emphasizing forward-deployed forces and integration for deterrence and responsiveness. This work facilitated coordination between the Department of Defense, State Department, and other agencies to align resources with strategic priorities amid evolving transnational threats. A key aspect of her tenure involved inputs into expansion, supporting the alliance's enlargement to incorporate seven new members—Bulgaria, , , , , , and —in 2004, which strengthened collective defense commitments in . Schake's role extended to assessing alliance burden-sharing, particularly in operational contexts like the in Afghanistan following 's invocation of Article 5 after the , where she helped shape U.S. expectations for European contributions to shared missions. These efforts underscored causal connections between credible deterrence postures and adversary restraint in post-9/11 threat environments.

Department of State

Schake served as deputy director for policy planning at the U.S. Department of State from December 2007 to May 2008. In this capacity, she managed the policy planning staff and contributed to the development of long-term strategies, including efforts to align departmental resources with objectives. Her work emphasized integrating defense capabilities into the execution of U.S. , addressing gaps in how diplomatic initiatives incorporated dimensions. During her tenure, Schake focused on resourcing strategies for State Department foreign assistance programs, aiming to enhance their effectiveness amid bureaucratic constraints. This involved coordinating interagency efforts to ensure that aid and diplomatic engagements supported broader U.S. strategic goals, particularly in regions requiring synchronized civilian-military approaches. She advocated for reforms to overcome institutional inertia within the department, later critiquing its resistance to change in her analysis of systemic inefficiencies that hindered adaptive policymaking. Schake's policy planning contributions extended to evaluating multilateral frameworks, where she highlighted limitations arising from unequal power distributions among participants, arguing that such asymmetries often undermined effective outcomes in security cooperation. Her emphasis on realistic assessments of alliance dynamics informed recommendations for bolstering transatlantic ties through capability-sharing rather than overly optimistic institutional reliance. These efforts reflected her broader push for a State Department more attuned to power realities in diplomatic execution.

Academic and Think Tank Career

Teaching Positions

Schake served as an associate professor of studies at the at West Point, where she held the Distinguished Chair in that field. There, she led seminars such as SS478, focusing on topical issues in defense strategy and requirements, leveraging her government experience to instruct cadets on practical applications of . Her approach emphasized empirical historical analysis to evaluate and diplomatic decisions, preparing future officers for real-world contingencies without reliance on abstract theory alone. At University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Schake contributed to the faculty, delivering instruction on and security topics aligned with her expertise in alliances and deterrence. These courses incorporated case studies from dynamics and post-9/11 operations to illustrate causal links between strategic choices and outcomes, fostering critical assessment of U.S. commitments abroad. Schake also taught at , including the course "Thinking About War," which examined foundational principles of conflict through historical lenses, contrasting sustained U.S. leadership with retrenchment risks. Her prioritized data-driven evaluations of hegemony's stabilizing effects, such as alliance deterrence against aggression, over ideological alternatives, influencing students toward pragmatic, evidence-based policymaking.

Research and Leadership Roles

Prior to her appointment at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Kori Schake served as a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where she contributed to analyses on military history, civil-military relations, and international security, including co-authoring works on American military challenges. Her tenure at Hoover spanned over a decade, emphasizing first-hand policy insights drawn from government experience. In February 2018, Schake joined the (IISS) as Deputy Director-General, overseeing the organization's research program on global security threats, including annual assessments like The Military Balance, which compiles data on worldwide military capabilities and expenditures from 170 countries. In this role, she directed efforts to produce empirically grounded reports on defense trends, such as nuclear modernization and regional power balances, informing policymakers on verifiable metrics like troop strengths and equipment inventories. She departed IISS after approximately 20 months. Schake joined the (AEI) on December 11, 2019, as director of foreign and defense policy studies and resident scholar, leading a team focused on U.S. , alliances, and deterrence. Under her direction, AEI has produced research emphasizing empirical military assessments, including the 2022 Defending Taiwan project, which she co-edited, compiling data on force disparities—such as China's 1,000+ ballistic missiles versus Taiwan's limited air defenses—to advocate for enhanced U.S. commitments and allied . This initiative highlighted quantifiable gaps, like the People's Liberation Army's amphibious lift capacity for fewer than 10,000 troops in a single wave, to underscore deterrence needs without relying on unverified projections.

Political Involvement

McCain-Palin Campaign

During the 2008 presidential election, Kori Schake served as a senior policy advisor to the McCain-Palin campaign, focusing on development and outreach in areas such as and . In this role, she contributed to articulating Republican positions that emphasized robust U.S. engagement abroad, contrasting with Democratic proposals for rapid drawdowns in and shifts in priorities toward . Schake advocated for sustained U.S. military commitments in and , aligning with John McCain's support for General David Petraeus's , which had reduced violence in Iraq following the 2007 surge of 20,000 additional troops. She critiqued Barack Obama's campaign rhetoric for downplaying Iraq's centrality in the war on , arguing that it remained the primary theater despite challenges in and , where U.S. forces numbered around 30,000 in mid-2008 compared to over 150,000 in Iraq. This stance reflected a causal emphasis on securing gains through persistent and efforts rather than premature withdrawal, which Schake and McCain warned could enable insurgent resurgence. Following the election loss on , , Schake's campaign experience informed her subsequent analyses of U.S. alliance management, highlighting risks of eroding transatlantic ties amid Democratic administrations' "pivot to " strategy announced in 2011, which redirected resources and attention away from . She maintained that such reorientations, without sustained investments, undermined deterrence and partner confidence, drawing on empirical lessons from Iraq's post-surge stabilization to argue for integrated global commitments over regional pivots.

Transatlantic Task Force

In 2019, Kori Schake joined the Transatlantic Task Force "Together or Alone? Choices and Strategies for Transatlantic Relations for 2021 and Beyond," convened by the of the United States and the Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung to address strains in U.S.-European relations, including security cooperation amid Russian threats. Chaired by Karen Donfried and Wolfgang Ischinger, the group comprised 14 experts from both sides of the Atlantic, with Schake representing the as director of foreign and defense policy studies. The task force analyzed alliance dynamics, prioritizing empirical assessments of NATO's operational readiness over diplomatic platitudes often favored in European policy circles. The task force's report, released on October 6, 2020, advocated concrete U.S.-European initiatives to bolster deterrence credibility, particularly against Russian revisionism following the 2014 annexation of . It stressed the empirical necessity for European allies to increase defense investments, citing persistent shortfalls where, as of 2019, only nine of 29 NATO members met the 2 percent of GDP spending target established at the 2014 Wales Summit—a gap that eroded collective defense capabilities and overburdened U.S. forces. Schake's involvement reinforced arguments for causal accountability in burden-sharing, linking inadequate European military modernization to heightened risks of alliance deterrence failure, rather than attributing tensions solely to U.S. policy shifts as some transatlantic commentators have. Through the task force, Schake contributed to recommendations urging Europe to prioritize deployable forces and integrated planning over fragmented national initiatives, countering narratives that downplayed free-riding on U.S. security guarantees despite data showing European defense budgets averaging under 1.5 percent of GDP for decades prior. This work highlighted how such imbalances, normalized in alliance discourse, undermined the mutual obligations central to NATO's Article 5, advocating instead for verifiable contributions to sustain transatlantic security without presuming indefinite American subsidization.

Key Views and Analyses

Foreign Policy Principles

Schake's foreign policy framework centers on a realist prioritization of U.S. national interests through the maintenance of military superiority and alliances that enable credible deterrence against adversaries. She contends that American , including a robust defense posture with increased spending, is essential to prevent threats from materializing, as evidenced by the U.S. Navy's current disadvantage against 's fleet of 370 ships compared to America's 291. This approach rejects as empirically counterproductive, arguing that disengagement undermines U.S. security by emboldening rivals like and , while alliances amplify American influence at lower cost. In her advocacy for alliances, Schake highlights their multifaceted role beyond mere deterrence, including the promotion of democratic values and adaptation to hybrid threats, as demonstrated by NATO's evolution since . She critiques overly diffuse that prioritizes consensus over efficacy, favoring instead targeted coalitions aligned with U.S. primacy, which she views as a stabilizing force that has historically preserved peace and prosperity for allies. This principled realism emphasizes empirical validation of power dynamics, where credible threats—backed by 92% Republican support for a strong —deter aggression without necessitating constant intervention. Regarding specific flashpoints, Schake argues that U.S. support for is indispensable, as the island cannot repel a Chinese invasion without American assistance, and failing to deter risks broader regional instability. On , she maintains that continued aid—constituting just 5% of the 2023 U.S. defense budget—has restrained Russian escalation, including nuclear posturing, and signals resolve to , whereas withdrawal would invite greater destruction and erode allied confidence in American leadership. These positions underscore her belief in U.S. primacy as a causal bulwark against authoritarian expansion, supported by public sentiment where 64% of Trump voters favor aid when tied to .

Civil-Military Relations

Schake examines civil-military relations through a historical lens in her 2025 book The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States, arguing that the U.S. system's success stems from deliberate constitutional safeguards against military overreach, rooted in the Founding Fathers' distrust of standing armies as articulated in the Declaration of Independence and Papers. She details precedents like the 1794 —where militias quelled unrest without federal troops—and the 1807 Insurrection Act, which impose strict limits on domestic deployments to preserve civilian primacy and prevent praetorian tendencies. These mechanisms, Schake contends, have ensured military professionalism and apolitical subordination for over 250 years, with deviations historically leading to democratic erosion. Central to her framework is countering politicization from ideological extremes, noting that actions like veterans' partisan endorsements or officers' public political advocacy—observed across the spectrum—undermine the 's nonpartisan ethos, regardless of origin. Schake identifies tests of this balance in civilian authority to dismiss leaders and compel policy adherence, which she assesses as intact despite strains, but warns that demagogic pressures or institutional missteps could fracture it. In her analysis, serves as a , with Gallup polls showing confidence in the military dropping to its lowest in over 20 years by the late , reverting to approximately 1975 levels (around 70% from peaks near 90% post-9/11), linked in part to perceptions of increasing politicization. Schake's 2025 critiques focused on President Trump's remaking of senior military leadership and deployments of units to U.S. cities under pretexts like training or immigration support, which she viewed as skirting the Act's prohibitions on domestic and echoing Andrew Johnson's 1867 constitutional clashes. These moves, she argued, compel the military into partisan roles, pressuring officers to prioritize loyalty over professionalism and risking the first organized challenge to civilian control in U.S. history. To mitigate such threats, Schake proposes legislative reforms like Insurrection Act amendments and enhanced to reinforce boundaries without weakening defense readiness.

Publications

Books

Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American Hegemony (, 2017) examines historical power transitions, arguing that the shift from British to American dominance avoided due to both powers operating within a shared framework that facilitated accommodation rather than conflict. Schake analyzes nine historical crises, including the and the Venezuelan boundary dispute, to demonstrate how ideological alignment and institutional rules enabled peaceful adjustment, contrasting this with violent transitions like those involving or . The book posits that hegemony transfers need not precipitate if rising powers respect established norms, offering policy lessons for contemporary great-power competition. In America vs the West: Can the Liberal World Order Be Preserved? ( Australia, 2018), Schake assesses threats to transatlantic alliances, contending that the post-World War II liberal order's endurance requires active defense against internal divergences, such as European free-riding on security and differing threat perceptions. She argues that cohesion depends on mutual compromises and shared commitments to rules-based , warning that unilateral American retrenchment or European moralism could erode collective deterrence against authoritarian challengers. The analysis emphasizes empirical patterns of alliance strain, advocating pragmatic reforms to sustain and burden-sharing without assuming perpetual stability. The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States (Polity, 2025) traces U.S. civil-military dynamics from the Founding era, highlighting how constitutional safeguards and cultural norms have historically prevented but face erosion from politicized interventions and eroded . Schake details causal mechanisms of imbalance, such as executive overreach in advice or congressional , which undermine operational effectiveness and apolitical as envisioned by the Founders' aversion to standing armies. The work underscores risks from ideologically driven interference, urging restoration of clear primacy through evidence-based boundaries to preserve subordination to elected authority.

Articles and Reports

Schake authored "The Imperative for a Trump Presidency" in on November 8, 2024, advocating for pragmatic reforms to strengthen U.S. deterrence, including increased defense spending and alliance revitalization to counter adversaries like and . In the piece, she emphasized aligning resources with strategy, critiquing prior administrations' underinvestment in military capabilities that left U.S. forces strained across multiple theaters. At the (AEI), Schake has produced reports and op-eds critiquing U.S. defense readiness, such as her September 16, 2023, analysis arguing that aid to exposed but did not cause systemic munitions shortages, with U.S. stockpiles depleted to levels risking defeat in a major war against peer competitors. She highlighted data on industrial base constraints, noting that without replenishing supplies like shells—depleted faster than production rates—the U.S. military's sustainability in prolonged conflicts remains vulnerable. On , Schake contributed to AEI's assessments, including warnings in 2023 transcripts about falling behind in national security technologies, citing metrics like China's lead in hypersonic missiles and capacity outpacing U.S. output by over 200 vessels annually. In a October 17, 2025, op-ed titled "America's Real Enemy Within," Schake warned of risks to civil-military relations from efforts to deploy the military domestically for political purposes, arguing such actions erode the apolitical professionalism that has sustained U.S. institutions since the nation's founding. She drew on historical precedents, contending that normalizing partisan use of forces undermines deterrence abroad by signaling internal divisions exploitable by adversaries. Earlier contributions, like her April 5, 2022, piece "America Must Spend More on Defense," urged budgeting at least 5% of GDP for military needs to match threats from revisionist powers, supported by comparisons of U.S. readiness gaps in areas like naval and air superiority.

Reception and Criticisms

Praises and Achievements

Kori Schake has garnered recognition through senior leadership roles in prominent conservative institutions, underscoring her influence on discourse. As director of foreign and defense policy studies at the (AEI) since 2015, she oversees research and analysis shaping Republican perspectives on defense strategy and alliances. Her prior tenure as a distinguished at the from 2008 to 2018 facilitated contributions to empirical studies on military efficacy and international commitments, enhancing her stature in conservative intellectual circles. Schake's appointments to high-level international positions further highlight her expertise, including serving as deputy director-general of the from 2018 to 2019, where she advanced global strategic assessments. She held the distinguished chair in international security studies at the at West Point from 2005 to 2008, influencing military education on civil-military relations and alliance dynamics. In 2004, she received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy for her policy contributions. Schake's role in bolstering post-Bush Republican realism has been marked by her advocacy for sustained U.S. leadership against populist retrenchment, earning commendation within conservative networks for empirically grounded defenses of burdensharing. Her analyses, emphasizing the causal benefits of American commitments in deterring adversaries and stabilizing partners, have informed debates on countering isolationist deviations in GOP strategy.

Debates and Critiques

Schake has drawn criticism from supporters of former President for her consistent opposition to his , positioning her as a prominent "never-Trump" voice among Republican experts. This stance has fueled intra-conservative disputes, with Trump allies viewing her internationalist outlook as resistant to a more transactional, America-first approach that prioritizes withdrawal from entangling alliances. Despite such rebukes, Schake's arguments against —emphasizing historical precedents like the interwar period's deterrence failures leading to —have garnered support from traditional conservatives who cite empirical evidence of alliance erosion under retrenchment policies, such as reduced burden-sharing compliance before 2017. In debates over U.S. military interventions, Schake has been labeled hawkish by restraint-oriented commentators on the right, who argue her advocacy for robust deterrence in regions like and the echoes interventionist overreach seen in and . For instance, her 2020 critique of then-candidate Biden's skepticism toward military action was interpreted by critics as insufficiently accounting for the high costs of past efforts, which exceeded $2 trillion in alone per Brown University's Costs of War project estimates. Yet, Schake counters that her preferred strategy prioritizes cost-effective measures like forward-deployed forces and allied capacity-building over indefinite occupations, pointing to data from the post-Cold War showing deterrence investments correlating with fewer direct U.S. combat casualties compared to reactive interventions. Schake's 2025 warnings on civil- relations, particularly Trump's moves to replace senior leaders and deploy forces domestically, have intensified debates by framing such actions as politicization eroding civilian control norms established since the 1862 Militia Act. In a podcast, she highlighted risks of , drawing on historical cases like the Roman Republic's late-era loyalty shifts, while advocating for apolitical professionalism amid recruitment shortfalls of over 40,000 active-duty personnel in 2024. These positions have provoked pushback from Trump-aligned figures who contend they overlook internal cultural shifts, such as diversity initiatives perceived by some as ideological biasing, though Schake maintains that external executive overreach poses the greater causal threat to institutional neutrality based on Gallup polls showing in the dipping to 60% in 2024 from 70% pre-2020.

Personal Life

Family and Background

Kori Schake grew up in , in a that emphasized intellectual engagement and independence. Her father was a commercial airline pilot, while her mother, a stay-at-home , was described by Schake as intelligent, , and devoted to motherhood, instilling values of humor and that Schake credits for her formative years. She has two siblings: an older brother, Schake, who attended the , became a flying F-15s, and later pursued business interests; and a younger sister, Schake, who entered Democratic political advising, including roles with Hillary Clinton's campaigns. The siblings, raised on a in Sonoma's Diamond A area, shared a competitive streak, with all three elected as student body presidents during their school years. Despite ideological differences—Kori aligned with conservative circles and Kristina with liberal ones—the family maintained close ties, with parents remaining in the area as of the mid-2010s. Public details on Schake's marital and parental status are minimal, reflecting her preference for in personal matters separate from professional discourse. She married at a young age but has declined to elaborate on her spouse or any family life beyond her upbringing. No verified information confirms children, underscoring the apolitical and low-profile nature of her amid a career focused on strategy.

References

  1. https://carnegieendowment.org/people/kori-schake?lang=en
  2. https://www.aei.org/profile/kori-schake/
  3. https://fedsoc.org/bio/kori-schake
  4. https://www.hoover.org/profiles/kori-schake
  5. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO00/20140501/102210/HHRG-113-GO00-Bio-SchakePhDK-20140501.pdf
  6. https://www.hoover.org/research/will-china-impose-new-world-order
  7. https://www.sonomanews.com/article/news/sonoma-high-grad-kori-schake-to-speak-on-international-relations/
  8. https://ucigcc.org/alumni-confidential/alumni-confidential-kori-schake/
  9. https://www.ramapo.edu/news/press-releases/dr-kori-schake-named-2022-commencement-speaker-at-ramapo-college-of-new-jersey/
  10. https://www.sonomanews.com/article/news/prominent-foreign-policy-expert-kori-schake-returns-to-sonoma-to-talk-ukrai/
  11. https://cimsec.org/bow-hegemon-dr-kori-schake-peaceful-transition-global-power/
  12. https://www.thecommongoodus.org/past-speakers/kori-schake
  13. https://www.belfercenter.org/person/dr-kori-schake
  14. https://www.hoover.org/research/lessons-indian-wars
  15. https://courses.westpoint.edu/crse_details.cfm?crse_nbr=SS478&int_crse_eff_acad_yr=2008&int_crse_eff_term=1
  16. https://www.aei.org/press/kori-schake-joins-aei-as-director-of-foreign-and-defense-policy-studies/
  17. https://www.hoover.org/research/can-united-states-maintain-top-notch-military-when-few-american-are-willing-join-all
  18. https://www.iiss.org/press/2018/iiss-appoints-new-deputy-director-general/
  19. https://cdn.govexec.com/media/featured/dr_kori_schake_biography.pdf
  20. https://www.aei.org/research-products/book/defending-taiwan-essays-on-deterrence-alliances-and-war/
  21. https://www.defendingtaiwan.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BK-Defending-Taiwan-online-final.pdf
  22. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/mccain-campaign-press-release-case-you-missed-it-mccain-campaign-conference-call-barack-8
  23. https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11547_Page2.html
  24. https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2008/0707/p01s03-uspo.html
  25. https://www.lowyinstitute.org/node/600
  26. https://www.gmfus.org/news/expert-panel-chaired-dr-karen-donfried-and-amb-wolfgang-ischinger-recommends-joint-us-european
  27. https://www.helmut-schmidt.de/en/news-1/detail/the-german-marshall-fund-and-bundeskanzler-helmut-schmidt-stiftung-launch-transatlantic-task-force-setting-path-forward-for-us-europe-relations
  28. https://www.gmfus.org/news/together-or-alone-choices-and-strategies-transatlantic-relations-2021-and-beyond
  29. https://digitalcommons.ndu.edu/strategic-forums/128/
  30. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/natos-defense-depends-on-mobility/
  31. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/donald-trump-case-conservative-internationalism
  32. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/back-basics
  33. https://tnsr.org/roundtable/book-review-roundtable-america-and-its-allies/
  34. https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/230918-Assessing-the-Past-Year-of-Defending-Taiwan-transcript.pdf?x91208
  35. https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/ukraine-without-america/
  36. https://interactives.lowyinstitute.org/features/frontier-rules/essays/west-alliances-rbo
  37. https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-state-and-the-soldier-a-history-of-civil-military-relations-in-the-united-states--9781509570539
  38. https://breakingdefense.com/2025/09/can-americas-trust-in-its-military-survive-the-present-moment-book-excerpt/
  39. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-deploying-military-at-home-threatens-american-democracy-by-kori-schake-2025-10
  40. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/avoiding-praetorianism-in-civil-military-relations
  41. https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/tpi/civil-military-relations-under-trump-kori-schake
  42. https://www.aljazeera.com/video/the-bottom-line/2025/10/12/why-is-trump-deploying-forces-to-us-cities
  43. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674975071
  44. https://www.hoover.org/research/safe-passage-transition-british-american-hegemony
  45. https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/america-vs-west
  46. https://www.amazon.com/America-West-Liberal-Preserved-Specials/dp/0143795368
  47. https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Media/News/News-Article-View/Article/1913029/america-vs-the-west/
  48. https://www.aei.org/articles/can-americas-trust-in-its-military-survive-the-present-moment-book-excerpt/
  49. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/national-security-imperative-trump-presidency-kori-schake
  50. https://www.aei.org/op-eds/ukraine-isnt-the-reason-the-u-s-is-unprepared-for-war/
  51. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2022-04-05/america-must-spend-more-defense
  52. https://gradschool.umd.edu/centennial/notable-alumni
  53. https://www.npr.org/2025/08/02/nx-s1-5485733/do-conservatives-have-a-role-in-challenging-trumps-foreign-policy
  54. https://www.aei.org/multimedia/what-republican-foreign-policy-gets-wrong/
  55. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/what-republican-foreign-policy-gets-wrong-kori-schake
  56. https://www.aei.org/articles/the-case-for-conservative-internationalism/
  57. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/how-interventionists-hijack-the-rhetoric-of-morality/
  58. https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/12/a-rift-in-the-conservative-foreign-policy-world/
  59. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HoJ8sKgjAE
  60. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/style/this-woman-is-in-charge-of-shaping-hillary-clintons-image.html
  61. https://www.sonomanews.com/article/lifestyle/schake-revamping-hillary-ledsons-new-chef-and-program-food-truck-fridays/
  62. https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-prez-california-sisters-presidential-politics-20150914-story.html
  63. https://www.vogue.com/article/sisters-kori-kristina-schake-politics-liberal-democrat-republican
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