Experts

Eric Edelman

Practitioner Senior Fellow

Fast Facts

  • Career minister in the U.S. Foreign Service
  • Undersecretary of defense for policy in the George W. Bush Administration
  • Ambassador to Finland and Turkey
  • Recipient of Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service
  • Expertise on defense policy, nuclear policy and proliferation, diplomacy

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • American Defense and Security
  • War and Terrorism

Eric Edelman, practitioner senior fellow, retired as a career minister from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2009, after having served in senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense as well as the White House. As the undersecretary of defense for policy (2005-2009), he oversaw strategy development as the Defense Department’s senior policy official with global responsibility for bilateral defense relations, war plans, special operations forces, homeland defense, missile defense, nuclear weapons and arms control policies, counter-proliferation, counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, arms sales, and defense trade controls. Edelman served as U.S. ambassador to the Republics of Finland and Turkey in the Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations and was principal deputy assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney for national security affairs. Edelman has been awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, and several Department of State Superior Honor Awards. In January of 2011 he was awarded the Legion d’Honneur by the French government. In 2016, he served as the James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center.

Eric Edelman News Feed

The Bulwark Headline
Escalation, Deterrence, and Leadership
Eric and Eliot welcome back friend of the show Kori Schake, the Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. They discuss Kori’s recent visit to Ukraine, the Biden Administration’s management of escalation dynamics in the Russo-Ukrainian war, and whether the administration’s rhetoric has undercut their professed objectives.
Eric Edelman The Bulwark
Al-Monitor Headline
Blinken calls Turkey’s FM Hakan Fidan, Sweden’s NATO bid tops agenda
Eric Edelman, a former US ambassador to Turkey, believes that Erdogan “wants to cool things down at least for the period leading up to municipal elections [in March 2024].”
Eric Edelman Al-Monitor
The Bulwark Headline
Memorial Day, Election Day, and a Birthday
Eric and Eliot share reflections on Memorial Day (and the proper way to observe it), analyze the Turkish election results and Turkey’s future course as a regional power, discuss the rise of religious authoritarianism and populism around the globe, and mark Henry Kissinger’s one hundredth birthday with a discussion of his complex and complicated legacy as a statesman.
Eric Edelman The Bulwark
The Dispatch Headline
Erdoğan’s Impending Victory and Turkey’s Future Course
Turkish President Recep Tayipp Erdoğan is likely to be reelected to another term on Sunday despite widespread speculation that he might lose. He has already ruled the Turkish Republic for almost a decade longer than its founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and his victory at the polls will undoubtedly keep Turkey on its increasingly nationalist and authoritarian trajectory.
Eric Edelman The Dispatch
The Bulwark Headline
Eliot Cohen: Foreign Correspondent
Eric and Eliot mark the latter’s return from his European travels with dark musings about why they have not yet been sanctioned by the Russian government. They also discuss Finland’s adaptation to NATO membership, the differing perspectives of the Nordic and Baltic states, whether or not the neutrality of the “global south” in the Russo-Ukraine war is consequential, and Ukraine’s post-Bakhmut prospects.
Eric Edelman The Bulwark
The Bulwark Headline
The October Farce
Will Inboden, the Executive Director of the William Clements Center for National Security, joins Eric to discuss the alleged “October Surprise” in 1980 — the long bruited charge that Reagan campaign manager Bill Casey colluded with Iranian intermediaries to forestall the release of the U.S. hostages until after the election.
Eric Edelman The Bulwark