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The Gemunder Center Iran Task Force

- Friday, August 28, 2015 |
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The Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy performs serious and innovative research and advocacy on vital U.S. defense, strategic and general national security issues related to Israel, the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.


The Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy performs serious and innovative research and advocacy on vital U.S. defense, strategic and general national security issues related to Israel, the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.

The Gemunder Center’s revamped Iran Task Force brings together former senior military officers, high-ranking government officials, energy experts and business leaders to address the pressing challenges to U.S. national security posed by Iran and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program. The task force examines the strategic, economic and military options available to the United States to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability and counteract its destabilizing aggression against the United States and its allies.

The task force combines the efforts of the Gemunder Center’s two preexisting Iran policy groups. The previous Iran Task Force convened former high-ranking government officials and other civilian experts to develop a robust U.S. strategy to prevent a nuclear Iran. The Iran Strategy Council was an organization of former senior military officers with the mission to educate audiences on the dangers posed by the JCPOA, and the actions the United States must undertake with its allies to mitigate these dangers.

Iran Task Force Members

  • Co-chair: Ambassador Eric Edelman
    Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

  • Co-chair: General Charles Wald, USAF (ret.)
    Former Deputy Commander of U.S. European Command; JINSA Gemunder Center Distinguished Fellow

  • Vice Admiral John Bird, USN (ret.)
    Former Commander, U.S. Seventh Fleet; former Director, U.S. Navy Staff

  • Professor Eliot Cohen
    Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

  • General James Conway, USMC (ret.)
    Former Commandant of the Marine Corps; former Director of Operations (J-3) on the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  • Lieutenant General David Deptula, USAF (ret.)
    Former Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, U.S. Air Force Headquarters; JINSA Gemunder Center Senior Advisor

  • Larry Goldstein
    Founder and Director of Energy Policy Research Institute, Inc.; JINSA Gemunder Center Senior Advisor

  • John Hannah
    Former Assistant for National Security Affairs to the Vice President; JINSA Gemunder Center Senior Advisor

  • Alan Makovsky
    Former Senior Professional Staff Member at U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee

  • Lieutenant General Henry Obering, USAF (ret.)
    Former Director of the Missile Defense Agency

  • The Honorable Steven Rademaker
    Former Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation; JINSA Gemunder Center Senior Advisor

  • Major General Lawrence Stutzriem, USAF (ret.)
    Former Director, Plans, Policy and Strategy at North American Aerospace Defense Command

  • Dr. Ray Takeyh
    Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies at Council on Foreign Relations

  • Roger Zakheim
    Former General Counsel and Deputy Staff Director of U.S. House Armed Services Committee

  • Mortimer Zuckerman
    Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report