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

Shield of the Republic
Losing Sleep Over Germany
Eliot and Eric welcome Constanze Stelzenmuller, the Director of the Center on the United States and Europe and the Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and Transatlantic Relations at the Brookings Institution. They discuss the current row over Germany providing Leopard Tanks to Ukraine, the political constraints on German Chancellor Olof Scholz, the role of Cold War ostpolitik on contemporary policy debates, the intellectual impact of Carl Schmitt and Victor Klemperer on elite German thinking, and the Hitler-Putin comparison. They end with a discussion on the late Judith Shklar as a political philosopher and teacher of political theory and her writings on power and cruelty.
Eric Edelman Shield of the Republic Podcast
The Bulwark
As Germany Delays, Ukrainians Die
Every day that Germany fails to approve or facilitate the transfer of its Leopard tanks to Ukraine is costing Ukrainian lives and risks emboldening the authoritarian Putin regime. Polish foreign minister Zbigniew Rau put it succinctly when he tweeted: “Arming Ukraine in order to repel the Russian aggression is not some kind of decision-making exercise. Ukrainian blood is shed for real. This is the price of hesitation over Leopard deliveries. We need action, now.”
Eric Edelman The Bulwark
Shield of the Republic
Superpowered Arms
Eric and Eliot welcome John Maurer, Professor of Strategy and Security Studies at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies at Air University in Alabama and author of Competitive Arms Control, Nixon, Kissinger and SALT, 1969-1972 (Yale University Press, 2022). They discuss the competitive and cooperative approaches to arms control, interagency deliberations and conflicts in the Nixon Administration, the motivations and policies of Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and especially Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird.
Eric Edelman Shield of the Republic Podcast
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The four ages of American foreign policy (with Michael Mandelbaum)
Eric Edelman, practitioner senior fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, and Eliot Cohen welcome their SAIS colleague Michael Mandelbaum to talk about his recent book, 'The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy.'
Eric Edelman Shield of the Republic
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Divided they stood
Eliot Cohen and Eric Edelman, practitoner senior fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, welcome the husband and wife team of Peter Baker of New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker to discuss their new book, The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2022.
Eric Edelman Shield of the Republic podcast
Man holding picture of Amini, who died in Iranian police custody
Iran's protesters want regime change
America should lend them a hand, writes Eric Edelman and Ray Takeyh in 'Foreign Affairs.'
Eric Edelman and Ray Takeyh Foreign Affairs