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Sebastian Gorka

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Sebastian Gorka
Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States
Assumed office
January 20, 2017
Personal details
Born
Gorka Sebestyén Lukács[1]

1970 (age 53–54)
London, England
SpouseKatharine Gorka
EducationPh.D. in political science
Alma materUniversity of London
Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration
OccupationDeputy Assistant to the President of the United States, Professor, Author

Sebastian Lukacs Gorka (Hungarian: Gorka Sebestyén Lukács; born 1970) is an American military and intelligence analyst, a professor, and a member of the national security advisory staff; currently he serves as a deputy assistant to the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Gorka is of Hungarian ancestry and was born and grew up in the United Kingdom, lived in Hungary from 1992 to 2008, and as of 2012 is a naturalized American citizen.[2]

Gorka has written for a variety of publications and is generally considered politically conservative.[3][4] As a national security advisor, Gorka specializes in irregular warfare, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism. Gorka is largely a fringe figure in academic and policy-making circles, however his alliance with Presidential advisor Steve Bannon and the 45th president have taken a marginal figure and put his controversial and offensive views on the front row of public policy.[3][4]

Personal life and education

Sebastian Gorka was born in London in 1970 to Zsuzsa and Pál (Paul) Gorka who fled to the United Kingdom from Hungary after a failed 1956 uprising.[5] He attended St Benedict's School in west London, and received a lower second-class honours (2:2) Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Theology from Heythrop College, of the University of London.[5][6][7] At university, he joined the British Territorial Army reserves, serving for three years in the 22 Intelligence Company of Intelligence Corps, a counterterrorism unit.[5][8][9]

In 1992 Gorka moved to Hungary, where he worked for the Hungarian Ministry of Defence[10] while studying for a master's degree in international relations and diplomacy at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration (now known as the Corvinus University), which he completed in 1997. While finishing his degree he married American heiress[note 1] Katharine Fairfax Cornell.[11] In 1997, Gorka was a Partnership for Peace International Research Fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome.[12] Gorka was a Kokkalis Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University during the 1998–1999 academic year.[13][14]

After returning to Hungary in 1998, Gorka served as an adviser to Viktor Orbán.[15] In 2002, he entered into the PhD in political science at Corvinus University, completing his dissertation in 2007.[2][16]Gorka is a naturalized American citizen.[17]

Career

Sebastian Gorka briefing at SOCOM Wargame Center
Gorka briefing at SOCOM Wargame Center

Gorka worked in the Ministry of Defense during the Prime Ministry of József Antall.[18] Gorka's personal biography states that he abandoned his two-year fellowship at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government after the first year to work for the RAND Corporation.[14]

In 2002, he attempted to serve as an official expert on the parliamentary investigatory committee created to uncover the Communist background of the new Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy. Medgyessy had been an undercover officer in the Secret Police, the organization which had maintained the previous dictatorship and helped crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.[19] Gorka rejected Medgyessy's claims of having not spied on people when he was a secret policeman.[20]

In 2004, Gorka became an adjunct to the faculty of the new US initiative for the Program for Terrorism and Security Studies (PTSS), a Defense Department-funded program based in the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. At the same time Gorka became an adjunct to USSOCOM's Joint Special Operations University, MacDill Air Force Base. He and his family relocated to the United States in 2008. In America, Gorka was hired as administrative dean at the National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington D.C. Two years later, he began to lecture part-time for the ASD(SOLIC)-funded Masters Program in Irregular Warfare and Counterterrorism as part of the Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program but remained in a largely administrative role.[21] In 2014 Gorka assumed the privately-endowed Major General Horner Distinguished Chair of Military Theory at the Marine Corps University Foundation.[3] In August 2016, he joined The Institute of World Politics, a private institution, on a full-time basis as Professor of Strategy and Irregular Warfare and Vice President for National Security Support.[22] He is on the advisory board of the Council for Emerging National Security Affairs (CENSA).[23]

Between 2009 and 2011 Gorka wrote for the Hudson Institute of New York (now Gatestone Institute).[24] Between 2011 and 2013, Gorka was an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy.[5] From 2014 to 2016, Gorka was an editor for National Security Affairs for the Breitbart News Network,[25] where he worked for Stephen K. Bannon.[26]

Trump Administration

In January 2017, Gorka assumed the position of Deputy Assistant in the Trump Administration.[15][27] Gorka is a member of a White House team known as the Strategic Initiatives Group, which was set up by Gorka's former boss, Steve Bannon, together with Jared Kushner.[27]

Controversy

Fringe views

In a break with the previous two administrations, Gorka sees Islamic terrorism as essentially ideologically motivated and rooted in a totalitarian religious mindset. He backs President Trump's usage of the phrase "Radical Islamic Terrorism."[3][28]

Gorka has been characterized as a fringe figure in academic and policy-making circles.[3][4][29][30][31] The leading peer-reviewed anti-terrorism journal, Terrorism and Political Violence, has never used him as a reviewer, because he is not considered to be an expert on terrorism in the academic or policy community, according to its associate editor, Lawrence P. Rubin.[32] Greg Jaffe, of the Washington Post, argues that Gorka’s views “signal a radical break” from the discourse “defined by the city’s Republican and Democratic foreign policy elite” of the last 16 years. Both the Bush and Obama administrations played down Islam’s role in fueling terrorism. For Gorka, "the terrorism problem has nothing to do with repression, alienation, torture, tribalism, poverty, or America’s foreign policy blunders and a messy and complex Middle East", but is rooted in Islam and the teachings of the Koran. Gorka’s viewpoint was influenced by his comparison of Islamism to other totalitarian movements, where ideology played a central role.[3]

Business Insider described Gorka "is widely disdained within his own field", with a number of academics and policy-makers questioning both Gorka's knowledge of foreign policy issues and his professional behavior.[3][4][29][30][31][33][34]

Gorka has, however, been defended by some, such as former US ambassador Alberto Fernandez who led the State Department's Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications under Barack Obama;[4] James Carafano, director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies;[4] Ilan Berman of the American Foreign Policy Council;[35] Colin Dueck of George Mason University;[36] Stephen Sloan of University of Oklahoma;[37] and Retired Army Lt. Gen. John M. Mulholland, former deputy commander of the United States Special Operations Command.[37]

Congressman Robert Pittenger also defended Gorka, stating that Gorka "is a friend and trusted adviser on efforts to combat radical Islamic terrorism."[38] Retired Army Lt. Gen. Charles T. Cleveland, former commander of the Army Special Operations Command, said of Gorka that: "his instruction was crisp, relevant, and a useful part of their education on how to think about today’s threats, especially terrorism."[37]

The New York Times and Foreign Policy described Gorka as islamophobic.[30][33][39] Max Boot, the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, has described Gorka as an "anti-Muslim extremist."[33] Steven Simon, a professor at Amherst College, and Daniel Benjamin, the director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College, have described Gorka as an "islamophobic huckster" and say that he has developed "a reputation as an ill-informed Islamophobe".[30] Others have noted a distinction in Gorka's views about Islam: Richard Miniter attests that Gorka "has been emphatic that the enemy is not Islam" and that "there is an ideological war among Muslims, a small fraction of which side with al Qaeda and its ilk against the vast majority of Muslims, who are among the terrorists’ most numerous victims."[40]

Accusations of Nazi sympathies and anti-semitism

Gorka was a member of the Order of Vitéz by inheritance, a group the US State Department lists as a Nazi-linked group.[41][42][43] He renounced his membership in the Order of Vitéz as part of the naturalization process in 2012 when he became a U.S. citizenship. In 2017 he appeared on Fox News on the evening of the U.S. presidential inauguration dressed in the organization's uniform and wearing the badge, tunic, and ring of the Order of Vitéz.[41][44] This has given rise to claims that Gorka carries sympathy for the Nazis.[45][46][47][48]

Gorka stated that he wears this medal in remembrance of his father, Paul Gorka, who was awarded the decoration in 1979 for his efforts to create a pro-democracy, anti-Communist organization at the university he attended in Hungary. Sebastian Gorka recounted that his father lived through the German occupation of Budapest and the siege of Budapest as a child,[note 2] and was tortured under the Communist regime that emerged in Hungary after the war.[49][50] Hungarian expert of the Order of Vitéz, Robert Kerepeszki has stressed that there were ruptures in the organization of the Order of Vitéz on the question of Nazism during the war, many of them died fighting against Hungarian Nazis, and Gorka's medal had nothing to do with the war period, but was awarded "for his resistance to dictatorship."[51] The "uniform" that Gorka wore was the traditional Hungarian jacket, known as a bocskai.[47][52][note 3]

Several people who have worked with Sebastian Gorka have come forward and indicated that he is not anti-Semitic. Congressman Trent Franks released a statement saying: "Having called upon his expertise on Counterterrorism repeatedly in Congress and used his analysis to inform our work, I can attest that Dr. Gorka is the staunchest friend of Israel and the Jewish people."[53] The Forward responded to Franks' remarks, noting that he "did not offer any evidence to refute the reports on Gorka’s ties with the Hungarian groups".[54] Dr. Michael Rubin of the conservative American Enterprise Institute has noted that Gorka is "not at all" anti-Semitic.[35] EU Comissioner, member of the Hungarian Fidesz political party and former colleague of Gorka, Tibor Navracsics also defended Gorka, stating that Gorka "has spent his life battling fascists and anti-Semites of all sorts"[55]

Publications

Books, monographs

  • Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War (ISBN 978-1-62157-457-6), Regnery Publishing, 2016. (author)
  • A Citizen's Guide to War: American Military Actions in the 21st Century (Citizen Guides to Politics and Public) (author) Routledge, 2016
  • Content and End-State-based Alteration in the Practice of Political Violence since the End of the Cold War.: http://phd.lib.uni-corvinus.hu/314/1/gorka_sebestyen.pdf
  • Toward a Grand Strategy Against Terrorism. McGraw Hill Professional, 2010. (co-author)
  • The Afghanistan-Pakistan Theater: Militant Islam, Security & Stability (contributor) Foundation for Defense of Democracies, 2010
  • Fighting the Ideological War: Winning Strategies from Communism to Islamism (contributor) The Westminster Institute/Isaac Publishing, 2013
  • The Logic of NATO Enlargement in the Post-Cold War World NATO Defence College. Monographs, NDC, Rome, Fall 1999
  • Nations, Alliances and Security. Author: Chris N. Donnelly. Edited by Sebestyén Gorka, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó (Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), 2004. Review available

Articles

Notes

  1. ^ She is a direct descendant of George Cornell, the founder of the Cornell Iron Works company (now called "Cornell Iron").
  2. ^ See also Hungary in World War II
  3. ^ a bocskai is a dignified, military, traditional garment, ornately braided Cutcher, Alexandra J. "Epilogue". Displacement, Identity, Belonging. Sense Publishers. p. 249. and Neubauer, John; Borbála, Zsuzsanna (eds.). The Exile and Return of Writers from East-Central Europe: A Compendium. Walter de Gruyte. p. 372.

References

  1. ^ "Egy Orbán ellen szervezkedő magyar lehet Trump tanácsadója". HVG.hu (in Hungarian). January 24, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Balogh, Eva S. (February 2, 2017). "Sebastian L. von Gorka's encounter with the Hungarian National Security Office". Hungarian Spectrum. Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. {{cite magazine}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Jaffe, Greg (February 20, 2017). "For a Trump adviser, an odyssey from the fringes of Washington to the center of power". Washington Post.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Sebastian Gorka, Trump's combative new national security aide, is widely disdained within his own field". Business Insider. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d "Sebastian Gorka". www.iwp.edu. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  6. ^ "Aiken Republic Club | Sebastian L Gorka – May 24th". aikenrepublicanclub.com. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  7. ^ "Gorka, Sebastian (Dr.)". International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT). Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  8. ^ "Brit kém a Medgyessy-bizottságban?" [British spy in the Medgyessy-committee?]. Király Levente (in Hungarian). August 15, 2002.
  9. ^ Concha, Joe (February 2, 2017). "Trump deputy adviser Gorka slams former Obama security adviser Rhodes". The Hill.
  10. ^ Csapó, Endre (February 15, 2007). "A Gorka-jelenség" [The Gorka phenomenon] (in Hungarian). Hunsor. Archived from the original on December 30, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ "Weddings: Katharine Cornell, Sebestyen Gorka". The New York Times. July 7, 1996. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  12. ^ Gorka, Sebestyén (1997). "Invocation of Article Five: Five Years On". NATO Review. NATO. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  13. ^ "The Kokkalis Foundation : Sebestyen Gorka". www.kokkalisfoundation.gr. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  14. ^ a b "The husband-and-wife team driving Trump's national security policy". POLITICO. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  15. ^ a b "Sebastian Gorka's road from Budapest to the White House". Hungarian Spectrum. January 31, 2017. Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ Gorka, Sebestyén L. v. (2007). "Content and End-State-based Alteration in the Practice of Political Violence since the End of the Cold War: the difference between the terrorism of the Cold War and the terrorism of al Qaeda: the rise of the "transcendental terrorist" (PDF). Corvinus University of Budapest. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  17. ^ "Trump's controversial national security aide reportedly tied to far-right, anti-semitic group". Business Insider. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  18. ^ "Hungarian National Security Expert Sebastian Gorka has Joined Trump's White House". Hungary Today. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  19. ^ Matild, Torkos (June 18, 2002). "Titkos ügynök a kormány élén" [Secret agent of government head]. MNO (Nemzet Lap és Könyvkiadó Kft.) (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on May 16, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ LeBor, Adam (August 26, 2002). "Secret service past returns to haunt Hungary's leaders". The Independent. London. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
  21. ^ "Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program (CTFP) | The Official Home of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency". www.dsca.mil. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  22. ^ Phillips, Quinn (July 15, 2016). "Sebastian Gorka to join IWP faculty full-time this August". The Institute of World Politics. Archived from the original on September 23, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ "The Council for Emerging National Security Affairs (CENSA) - Board of Advisors". www.censa.net. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  24. ^ "Writings by Sebastian L. v. Gorka". Gatestone Institute.
  25. ^ Kirkland, Allegra (February 3, 2017). "Breitbart Staffer Turned Trump Aide Is Posterboy For New Admin's Nationalism". Talking Points Memo. Archived from the original on February 15, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ Darcy, Oliver (January 24, 2017). "Breitbart national security editor and Fox News contributor expected to join Trump White House". Business Insider France. Archived from the original on February 21, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ a b Fortin, Jacey (February 17, 2017). "Who Is Sebastian Gorka? A Trump Adviser Comes Out of the Shadows". The New York Times. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  28. ^ Nguyen, Tina (February 21, 2017). "5 Things to know about Sebastian Gorka, Trump's jihad whisperer". Vanity Fair.
  29. ^ a b Welna, David (February 24, 2017). "Criticized By Peers, White House Counterterrorism Adviser Returns Fire". National Public Radio (NPR). Retrieved February 25, 2017.
  30. ^ a b c d Simon, Steven; Benjamin, Daniel (February 24, 2017). "The Islamophobic Huckster in the White House". The New York Times.
  31. ^ a b Walt, Stephen M. "Five Ways Donald Trump Is Wrong About Islam". Foreign Policy. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
  32. ^ Stein, Jeff (February 23, 2017). "Exclusive: Listen to Controversial White House Terrorism Adviser Sebastian Gorka's Angry Call to a Critic". Newsweek. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
  33. ^ a b c Boot, Max (February 21, 2017). "The Worst and the Dimmest". Foreign Policy. Retrieved February 25, 2017. {{cite magazine}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  34. ^ "Perspective | Survival tips for Sebastian Gorka, PhD". Washington Post. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  35. ^ a b Schachtel, Jordan (February 27, 2017). "Meet the media's latest target for political destruction in Trump's White House: Dr. Sebastian Gorka". Conservative Review. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  36. ^ Dueck, Colin (February 27, 2017). "The Washington Post Smeared Sebastian Gorka". National Review. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  37. ^ a b c Gertz, Bill (February 27, 2017). "For White House Counterterror Adviser, Media Attacks Are Latest Theater of Battle". The Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  38. ^ "Pittenger statement on WH Deputy Assistant Gorka". Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  39. ^ Shane, Scott; Rosenberg, Matthew; Lipton, Eric (February 1, 2017). "Trump Pushes Dark View of Islam to Center of U.S. Policy-Making". The New York Times. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
  40. ^ Miniter, Richard (February 28, 2017). "Journalists Beware: Your War On Sebastian Gorka Is Only Hurting You". Forbes. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  41. ^ a b "Top Trump aide wears medal of Hungarian Nazi collaborators". The Times of Israel. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  42. ^ Kirkland, Allegra (February 13, 2017). "Did Gorka Really Wear A Medal Linked To Nazi Ally To Trump Inaugural Ball?". Talking Points Memo. Archived from the original on February 13, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  43. ^ Balogh, Eva S. (February 13, 2017). "Donald Trump's influential advisers: Sebastian and Katharine Gorka". Hungarian Spectrum. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  44. ^ "Why Is Trump Adviser Wearing Medal of Nazi Collaborators?". LobeLog. February 13, 2017. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  45. ^ Fortin, Jacey (February 17, 2017). "Who Is Sebastian Gorka? A Trump Adviser Comes Out of the Shadows". The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  46. ^ Davies, Caroline (February 17, 2017). "'A fabulous press conference': who are Trump's British cheerleaders?". The Guardian. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  47. ^ a b Kentish, Bob (February 15, 2017). "Top Donald Trump aide defends wearing medal linked to Nazi sympathisers". The Independent. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  48. ^ Fortin, Jacey (February 18, 2017). "Who is Sebastian Gorka? A Primer on the Trump Adviser". Boston Globe. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  49. ^ "Seb Gorka talks about his father's medal" (video). Breitbart. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  50. ^ Blum, Ruthie (February 16, 2017). "Top Trump Aide: Despite Resignation of National Security Adviser, Administration Committed to Flynn's Staunch Stance on Iran". The Algemeiner. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  51. ^ Borbás, Barna (February 17, 2017). "Hogyan NE fasisztázzunk?" [How NOT to libel someone fascist]. Heti Válasz (in Hungarian). Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  52. ^ Horthy, Miklós (February 17, 2017). "Hungarian Trump Aide Sebastian Gorka and the Order of Vitéz 'Controversy'". Hungary Today.
  53. ^ "Statement in Response to Media Attacks Against Dr. Sebastian Gorka". Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  54. ^ "Republican Congressman Calls Sebastian Gorka An 'American Patriot' — Despite Anti-Semitic Ties". The Forward. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
  55. ^ "EU commissioner defends Trump aide against 'false' attacks". Retrieved February 28, 2017.
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