Danielle Pletka

Danielle Pletka
Born	1963 Melbourne, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Vice-president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute

Danielle Pletka (born 1963 in Melbourne, Australia) is the vice-president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and a board member for the American Australian Council. She previously worked as and editorial assistant for the Los Angeles Times and Reuters; a staff writer for Insight on the News; a senior staff member for Near East and South Asia with the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and was an aide to Senator Jesse Helms.

Pletka was born in Melbourne, Australia. She earned her B.A. at Smith College and her M.S. at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University.

Pletka was editorial assistant with the Los Angeles Times and Reuters, working in Jerusalem from 1984 to 1985. She worked as a staff writer for Insight on the News. From 1992–2002, she was a senior professional staff member for Near East and South Asia with the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Steven Schier describes her as having been the "point person on Middle East, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan issues" for the Committee.

Pletka worked as an aide to Senator Jesse Helms between 1992 and 2001. She is regarded as having been "influential" in shaping his positions on foreign policy.

In March 2002 Pletka was hired by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative Washington, DC think tank, as vice president for foreign and defense policy, a position she continued to hold in 2017. At the time of her hiring, the Washington Post described her as "a staunch conservative with a caustic manner." The fact that Pletka was not a neoconservative or a scholar herself, created some tension for her after she took over the role from Jeane Kirkpatrick. She researches topics related to the Middle East, South Asia, terrorism, and weapons proliferation, and is an AEI expert on Iraq. Pletka is also involved in various other projects such as the Committee on the Present Danger.

...
Wikipedia