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Henry Sokolski is a widely published advocate of hawkish defense policies and frequent government consultant on military and intelligence matters. He is the executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC), a think tank devoted to “developing a truly effective nonproliferation policy” that shifts “the current debate away from academic stability arguments and traditional concerns about maintaining international norms to the more pressing proliferation problems.” This includes long-term strategies for “the most implacable proliferators (e.g., North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Libya)” and assessing whether “regime change [is] required in each case” and how regime change can be “accomplished without all-out wars.” [1]

A frequent contributor to such rightist outlets as the National Review and the Weekly Standard, Sokolski has criticized efforts to engage countries like Iran. In an October 2, 2009 entry for National Review’s blog, “The Corner,” Sokolski ridiculed the then-recent agreement between Iran and the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members (plus Germany) to allow inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites and send most of its enriched uranium to Russia and France for processing. He wrote, “Iran emerged as the clear winner at yesterday’s nuclear summit with Russia, China, France, the U.K., the U.S., and Germany. Heading into the Geneva talks, the U.S. and the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) were demanding that Iran suspend all nuclear-fuel-making activities or face sanctions. After seven and a half hours of negotiations, though, the UNSC and Germany blinked, dropped any hint of penalizing Tehran, and let it continue to make nuclear fuel at Natanz.” [2]

Sokolski’s view of the agreement contrasted sharply with that of other experts. According to Gary Sick of Columbia University, the meetings in Geneva opened up the possibility of achieving some realistic goals, including “maximum inspection and monitoring of all aspects of Iran’s nuclear activities” and minimizing “Iran’s development of the precursors of a nuclear weapon.” [3]

NPEC’s executive director since 1994, Sokolski has also been associated with a lengthy list of hardline and neoconservative-led advocacy organizations, including the Hoover Institution, the National Institute for Public Policy, United Against Nuclear Iran, and the Heritage Foundation. He was a signatory to several open letters published by the Project for the New American Century, including its September 21, 2001 letter to President George W. Bush, which argued: "Even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the [9/11] attack, any strategy aiming at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Failure to undertake such an effort will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism."

NPEC's list of publications includes works from scholars representing a broad spectrum of the foreign policy elite, including a study by American Enterprise Institute scholar Thomas Donnelly entitled "Bad Options: Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Live with Loose Nukes," which describes a hypothetical scenario in which U.S. forces, working in tandem with allies in the Pakistani military, "reclaim [a captured nuclear] facility, render it safe, and attempt to recover whatever has been pirated away”; a presentation by respected proliferation expert George Perkovich entitled "A Realist Case for Conditioning the U.S.-India Nuclear Deal”; and a letter to Congress called "Current U.S.-India Deal Violates NPT," which includes signatures from both hawkish and moderate experts, including Thomas Cochran of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Victor Gilinsky, John Holum, Daryl Kimball, Christopher Paine, Henry S. Rowen, Lawrence Scheinman, and Leonard Weiss. [4]

Sokolski is the author or editor of numerous books, including Best of Intentions: America's Campaign Against Strategic Weapons Proliferation (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001); Nuclear Heuristics: Selected Writings of Albert and Roberta Wohlstetter (Strategic Studies Institute, 2009); Falling Behind: International Scrutiny of the Peaceful Atom (Strategic Studies Institute, 2008); Pakistan's Nuclear Future: Worries Beyond War (Strategic Studies Institute, 2008); Gauging U.S.-Indian Strategic Cooperation (Strategic Studies Institute, 2007); and Getting MAD: Nuclear Mutual Assured Destruction, Its Origins and Practice (Strategic Studies Institute, 2004). [5]

Sokolksi often teams up with other beltway advocates of aggressive U.S. foreign policies. In 2005, for example, Sokolski edited a volume entitled Getting Ready for a Nuclear-Ready Iran with Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. [6] The book, published by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College and partially funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, is based in part on the results of an NPEC working group on Iran and on interviews with government officials and other experts. [7] 

The study contends that "Ultimately, nothing less than creating moderate self-government in Iraq, Iran, and other states in the region will bring lasting peace and nonproliferation. This, however, will take time. Meanwhile, the United States and its friends must do much more than they are currently to frustrate Iran's efforts to divide the United States, Israel, and Europe from one another and from other friends in the Middle East and Asia; and to defeat Tehran's efforts to use its nuclear capabilities to deter others from taking firm action against Iranian misbehavior." [8] 

According to his NPEC bio, Sokolski’s government experience includes serving “as Deputy for Nonproliferation Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense under then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz. … Prior to his appointment to this post, Mr. Sokolski worked in the Secretary's Office of Net Assessment on strategic weapons proliferation issues. In addition to his Executive Branch service, Mr. Sokolski served as Senior Military Legislative Aide to Senator Dan Quayle (R-Ind.) from 1984 through 1988, and as Special Assistant on Nuclear Energy Matters to Senator Gordon Humphrey (R-NH) from 1982 through 1983. Mr. Sokolski also served as a consultant on proliferation issues to the intelligence community's National Intelligence Council. After his work in the Pentagon, Mr. Sokolski received a Congressional appointment to the Deutch Proliferation Commission, which completed its report in July 1999. He also served as a member of the Central Intelligence Agency's Senior Advisory Panel from 1995 through 1996.” [9]

Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.