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
Why can’t we admit that Ukraine is winning?
Eric and Eliot consider the first month of Russia-Ukraine War and Eliot’s Atlantic article on why it has been so hard for some observers to admit that Ukraine is winning. They also talk about how the Russian military’s failures to achieve its objectives might lead to stalemate, and how we should think about the risks of escalation and what is a theory of victory.
Eric Edelman Shield of the Republic Podcast
The Bulwark
Madeleine Albright: Champion of Democracy
The late mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley (the first Mayor Daley) when asked to comment on the fact that the Lord Mayor of Dublin was Jewish, is reputed to have said, “only in America.” There is nothing in the public record to suggest that he ever met Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright, but he might as well have been talking about her. Madeleine was a true child of the 20th Century. A refugee from both Nazism and Communism who became first an American and later the nation’s most senior female official up to that time. She was a trailblazer as the first woman to break the glass ceiling and serve as secretary of state (soon to be followed by the first African-American and two more women). She was also perhaps the most colorful secretary of state in recent memory with a great ability to charm her interlocutors. She was someone who excelled at the performance art that goes into being the nation’s senior diplomat.
Eric Edelman The Bulwark
SiriusXM
Eric Edelman on the Battle for Kyiv
Ambassador Eric Edelman, senior fellow at UVA Miller Center, joins Julie Mason to discuss the battle for Kyiv and US relations with Turkey.
Eric Edelman SiriusXM
Shield of the Republic
Zelensky, Churchill, Reagan
Eric and Eliot host British author and historian Andrew Roberts and discuss his revisionist account of King George III and how a good man was nonetheless the monarch under whom the American colonies were lost. They discuss his new podcast Secrets of Statecraft, the most important characteristics of leadership in wartime, and the role Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is playing today and its Churchillian and Reaganite overtones. They also talk about Vladimir Putin, the role of individuals in history, and more.
Eric Edelman Shield of the Republic Podcast
LA Times
News Analysis: Biden, recognizing the power of Zelensky’s plea to Congress, beefs up defense aid for Ukraine
Eric Edelman, a former ambassador to Finland and Turkey who served as undersecretary of Defense under President George W. Bush, questioned the White House’s logic in determining that delivering MIG-29 jets could be deemed by Putin as escalatory when it continues to supply Javelin missiles and other weapons that are being used against Russian forces. The Biden administration rebuffed Poland’s efforts last week to transfer such jets to Ukraine.
Eric Edelman Los Angeles Times
The Bulwark
Why Are We Deterring Ourselves?
In addition to his other miscalculations, Putin has fathered modern Ukrainian nationalism, and made NATO stronger and more unified than it's been in years. Former Ambassador Eric Edelman joins Charlie Sykes on today's podcast.
Eric Edelman The Bulwark Podcast