CORRECTION

A front-page profile Monday of Peter D. Feaver of Duke University's political science department mischaracterized a poster on the office door of Christopher Gelpi, a fellow Duke faculty member. The poster is a critique of the corporate influence on democracy.

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A central figure behind President Bush's new victory-in-Iraq strategy is a charismatic conservative sprung from Duke University's left-leaning political science department.

Peter D. Feaver, 43, is open-minded but a tough debate foe, his colleagues say. Students pack his classes. His international policy lectures earned him the university's top teaching award four years ago.

Then, there's the man on the basketball court: a pickup player who doesn't pass, questions every out-of-bounds call and happily hurls up bricks that clang off the rim.

"He's a darn gunner," said Michael Munger, chairman of Duke's political science department and Feaver's occasional teammate.

Munger could just as well be describing the political scientist's approach to his work.

Feaver made headlines last year when he and his left-leaning research partner, another Duke professor, showed that Americans would tolerate mounting casualties in Iraq if they believed the United States would win the war.

Late last month, when Bush's message of victory buzzed across the airwaves, Feaver made headlines again.

Now working in the federal government as a National Security Council adviser, Feaver was revealed to have been the original author of the online document that details Bush's plans for Iraq. The document, "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," was released Nov. 30, the day Bush spoke to the U.S. Naval Academy.

The strategy report

The report described the ingredients necessary for victory in Iraq, which included steady progress at defeating terrorists and a growing role by Iraqis in providing for the country's security. It described a set of goals for strengthening Iraqi democracy and government institutions and rebuilding the economy. And it reviewed the successes in Iraq so far, such as the holding of parliamentary elections. A sample chapter title: "Our Strategy for Victory Is Clear."

Although the plan was dismissed by many Democrats as containing nothing new, it appears to have helped Bush with the public. According to the Rasmussen Reports polling agency, 48 percent of Americans now think the country is winning the war on terror, up nine points from November and the highest confidence rate this year. The survey was conducted after Bush's speech.

The Bush administration would not talk in detail about Feaver's role in writing the Iraq document, calling its development a collaboration.

The council's Iraq Directorate led the effort, and Feaver was among many council staffers offering comment over several months, according to a prepared statement from Frederick Jones, spokesman for the National Security Council.

Feaver is not allowed to give interviews.

"He's been a young, dynamic scholar," said Bill Boettcher, a political scientist at N.C. State University. "Even if you disagree with his views, he's someone who believes in a position and follows through."

Richard Kohn, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor who has written a book with Feaver, said he didn't think Bush's victory theme reflected the nuance and sophistication of Feaver's scholarship.

Still, colleagues say the policy bears the stamp of Feaver's research. "If you want to say that Feaver is at least responsible in some way for the strategy of emphasizing victory, that's true," Munger said. "But he is a Republican."

That Bush is using the research is frustrating to Feaver's academic partner, Christopher Gelpi, an associate professor at Duke.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say I wish he were giving advice to John Kerry," said Gelpi, a liberal Democrat with anti-war posters on his office door.

One outcome of publishing research, Gelpi said, is that authors can't control how others might use it. He said aspects of Bush's strategy reflects the pair's research but that their work shows presidential rhetoric is not enough. It must be backed with actual success.

Gelpi and Feaver have been collaborating for eight years on research about the opinions of American civilians and military personnel. They published a book, "Choosing Your Battles," showing that in wartime, Americans will endure casualties if they believe victory is in the offing.

In a paper to be published this winter, they, along with a graduate student, found the same held true for Iraq. Their conclusion, which contradicts decades of thinking about American opinion on war casualties, has been controversial.

Locally, Boettcher of N.C. State has research that disagrees with Feaver and Gelpi's work. Boettcher thinks that Americans don't actually know the number of dead service members -- 2,142 as of Sunday, according to The Associated Press -- and that support for the war is mostly a partisan matter.

Research and its users

Gelpi and Feaver, eager to educate policy-makers about their work, presented their research in 2004 to national lawmakers, to the Bush re-election campaign and to the John Kerry Democratic presidential campaign.

The Bush people paid close attention. They asked Feaver to come to Washington. In June, Feaver took an unpaid leave of absence from Duke to become special adviser for strategic planning and institutional reform at the National Security Council.

In doing so, he took an estimated 30 percent pay cut and left behind Durham for a small house in Washington, Munger said.

It is Feaver's second stint at the National Security Council. He worked a year for President Clinton as director for defense policy and arms control.

And he disagreed when Clinton, battered by images of a dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of the war-torn Somalia, decided to pull the military out of the African country.

"That's part of the inspiration for the research we did," Gelpi said.

'Cool and funny' guy

Gelpi said his friend is relaxed and has a good sense of humor; he is someone who enjoys being around other people. The pair would have passionate arguments in their offices, each defending his point, before going home to their respective families.

"He's a cool and funny kind of man," said Kohn, the UNC professor.

Feaver is a devout Christian, friends said. He and his wife Karen, have adopted two sons and a daughter from Southeast Asia. He is a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve, which he joined in 1990.

Feaver hasn't shied from publicity. He was a regular on the newspaper opinion circuit during the presidential election, regularly writing pro-Bush columns in major dailies. (Feaver also has contributed work to The News & Observer's opinion pages.) "He can be pretty cutting to the side he disagrees with," Kohn said.

Feaver was a popular teacher at Duke. His international politics classes could be packed with 250 students, Munger said. Feaver researched each lecture thoroughly, adding fresh examples each semester and jotting performance suggestions on his lecture notes: insert a joke here, turn around here.

When Feaver came to Duke a decade ago, he was quiet and deferential, Munger recalled. That changed when Feaver received tenure, a permanent assignment that gave him more freedom to write controversial research. Colleagues expect him to go far in the world of policy-makers.

But Feaver, unlike his liberal research partner, has no posters on his office door, Munger said. "He doesn't want anything to mess up his confirmation hearings when he becomes secretary of state."