Alumnus Addresses Afghanistan Situation
West Point Grad & Prof Returns

On the heels of the announcement by President Obama that the U.S. will send 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan, Blair alumnus and professor Alex Gallo ’96 returned to the School as a Society of Skeptics speaker on December 8. Alex presented “A Strategic Look at Afghanistan: Understanding How External Actors are Shaping the Militant Landscape Inside Afghanistan.”

Following Blair, Alex attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. Upon graduation from West Point, he served as an infantry officer for five years on active duty and as a military intelligence officer for three years in the reserves. During that time, he deployed on a peacekeeping tour in Kosovo (2002) and a combat tour in Iraq (2004), earning the Bronze Star Medal for service in combat. Following active duty, Alex attended Harvard University and earned a master’s degree in public policy, concentrating in international security and political economy. Currently, Alex is a civilian professor in the department of social sciences at West Point and a research associate in the Combating Terrorism Center, a strategy think tank at West Point. Alex recently traveled to Afghanistan, where he was part of a four-person strategic assessment team for the international security and assistance force commander, General Stanley McCrystal, and the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry.

Click here for the complete fall/winter Skeptics schedule.

Updated 12/9/2009

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