General John Abizaid, USA (Ret.)

About the Speaker

John P. Abizaid is the Principal Partner of JPA Partners, LLC, a firm advising private business, government, and academic clients on national and international strategy, business, security, and military affairs since 2007. He serves as the Distinguished Chair (Emeritus) of the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was the first Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has worked with the Preventative Defense Project at Stanford University and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a Director of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He led the Dover Port Mortuary Inquiry Panel, co-chaired the Stimson Commission on Drone Policy and the 2014 National Defense Review, as well as leading several other national level assessment panels dealing with military issues. He currently serves as a Director of the George Olmsted Foundation, USAA, Virtu Financial, and RPM International.

General Abizaid retired from the United States Army as a four-star General in May 2007, after thirty-four years of active service. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he commanded units at every level, serving in the combat zones of Grenada, Lebanon, Kurdistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. Units under his command include the 1st Infantry Division, a brigade in the 82nd Airborne Division, and two Ranger companies. He studied at the University of Jordan in Amman, holds a master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University, and has deep expertise in regional as well as international strategy.