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UNC's Dr. Kohn can help reporters with questions about war and peace

Following is a capsule biography of Dr. Richard H. Kohn, a history professor and chair of the curriculum in peace, war and defense at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who may be a helpful resource for reporters in the weeks and months to come:

Kohn specializes in topics including American military policy, strategy, war-making, presidential war leadership and civil-military relations.

He has been researching issues of civilian control of the military for many years and has a book under way, "The President at War: Presidential War Leadership from George Washington to George Bush," which will analyzing the challenges of successful war leadership by presidents of the United States over the course of American history.

Kohn also co-directed a major research project on the gap between the military and American society today – whether it exists, if so, its nature, and whether such a gap could harm military effectiveness and/or civil-military cooperation. Most of the results were published in "Soldiers and Civilians: The Gap Between the Military and American Society" (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001), written by Kohn and Dr. Peter Feaver, a political scientist at Duke University.

Kohn recently served as a study group member for the U.S. Commission on National Security/ 21st Century. Their third and final report, published in March 2001, predicted that a large terrorist attack on U.S. citizens on American soil was likely in the next few years, possibly with Americans dying in large numbers, and it called for the creation of a new National Homeland Security Agency.

Kohn can be reached at (919) 962-9700; home, (919) 419-0323; or rhkohn@unc.edu.

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Photo url:  http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/kohn_richard.jpg

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589