Schake's first government job was with U.S. Department of Defense as a NATO Desk Officer in the Joint Staff's Strategic Plans and Policy Division (J-5), where from 1990 to 1994 she worked military issues of German unification, NATO after the Cold War, and alliance expansion.[7] She also spent 2 years (1994–1996) in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as the special assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Strategy and Requirements.[8]
National Security Council
During President George W. Bush's first term, she was the director for Defense Strategy and Requirements on the National Security Council.[9] She was responsible for interagency coordination for long-term defense planning and coalition maintenance issues. Projects she contributed to include conceptualizing and budgeting for continued transformation of defense practices, the most significant realignment of U.S. military forces and bases around the world since 1950, creating NATO's Allied Command Transformation and the NATO Response Force, and recruiting and retaining coalition partners for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.[7]
State Department
Schake was the deputy director for Policy Planning in the U.S. State Department from December 2007 to May 2008.[7][9] Her responsibilities included staff management as well as resourcing and organizational effectiveness issues, including a study of State Department reforms that enable integrated political, economic, and military strategies.[7]
In 2020, Schake, along with over 130 other former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted that President Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "To that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him."[23]
Personal life
Schake was raised in a small town in Sonoma County, California, by her parents Cecelia and Wayne, a former Pan Am pilot. Kori has a brother and sister. Kristina Schake, her 8-year-younger sister, has also worked in the White House, and played key roles in Democratic presidential campaigns, working with Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. Kori is a Republican.[24] Despite their political differences, they remain very close.[25]
Publications
Books
America vs the West: Can the Liberal World Order be preserved?, (Penguin Random House Australia, 2018) ISBN978-0-1437-9536-0.
Articles
The National Security Imperative for a Trump Presidency, Foreign Affairs, November 8, 2024[26]
The Case for Conservative Internationalism, Foreign Affairs, December 4, 2023[27]
"Choices for the Quadrennial Defense Review", Orbis, Summer 2009.
"NATO Strategy and the German-American Relationship," in Detlef Junker [de], ed., The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War (Cambridge University Press, 2004) ISBN978-0-521-83420-9.
The Berlin Wall Crisis, edited with John Gearson (Palgrave, 2002) ISBN978-0-333-92960-5.
"Arms Control After the Cold War: The Challenge of Diverging Security Agendas," in S. Victor Papacosma, Sean Kay, and Mark R. Rubin, eds., NATO After Fifty Years (2001) ISBN978-0-8420-2886-8.
Do European Union Defense Initiatives Threaten NATO? (Strategic Forum, National Defense University, August 2001).
"NATO’s ‘Fundamental Divergence’ Over Proliferation," in Ted Galen Carpenter, ed., The Journal of Strategic Studies, special issue on NATO Enters the 21st Century (September 2000); also published as a book by Frank Cass, 2001.
"Building A European Defense Capability," with Amaya Bloch-Laine and Charles Grant, in Survival (IISS, Spring 1999).
"NATO Chronicle: New World Disorder," Joint Forces Quarterly (April 1999).
Zwischen Weissen Haus und Pariser Platz – Washington und Berlin in Strategischer Allianz, in Ralph Thiele and Hans-Ulrich Seitz, eds., Heraus-Forderung Zukunft (Report Verlag, 1999).
"The Dayton Peace Accords: Success or Failure?", in Kurt R. Spillmann and Joachim Krause, eds., International Security Challenges in a Changing World (Peter Lang, 1999) ISBN978-3-906763-68-2.
"NATO After the Cold War, 1991–1996: Institutional Competition and the Collapse of the French Alternative," Contemporary European History, Vol 7, Part 3 (November 1998).
"Beyond Russia and China: A Survey of Threats to U.S. Security from Lesser States," in Challenging the United States Symmetrically and Asymmetrically: Can America Be Defeated?, Lloyd J. Matthews, ed., (U.S. Army War College, July 1998).
"The Breakup of Yugoslavia," in Roderick K. von Lipsey, ed., Breaking the Cycle: A Framework for Conflict Resolution (St. Martin's Press, 1997) ISBN978-0-312-16253-5.
^The Strategic Implications of a Nuclear-Armed Iran, Kori N. Schake and Judith S. Yaphe, McNair Paper 64 (National Defense University Press, 2001). About the AuthorsArchived 2009-01-10 at the Wayback Machine