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 Dispatch
Turkey is Collateral Damage in Erdoğan’s Hostage Diplomacy
Mordy and Natalie Oknin, an Israeli couple visiting Istanbul, filmed a video last week to dispel fears among Israelis too scared to visit Turkey. Natalie said, “There is nothing to fear. It is fun in Turkey, safe in Turkey, you can speak Hebrew openly. They love us Israelis.” Her husband added, “Come, everything is okay.” Shortly after, however, the Oknins ended up in solitary confinement for six days on spurious charges of espionage and were able to return home only following backchannel talks between Ankara and Jerusalem. The swift resolution of the latest episode of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s hostage diplomacy should not gloss over the harm it does to the detained victims and its collateral damage to Turkey.
Eric Edelman The Dispatch
Shield of the Republic
Three Dangerous Men (with Seth Jones)
Eric and Eliot discuss three dangerous men (Russian General Valeriy Gerasimov, the late Iranian IRGC leader Ghassem Soleimani and PRC Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia) with Seth Jones who has written a new book on irregular or, if you prefer, political warfare. They discuss the active conflict in this domain in which the US finds itself with Russia, China, and Iran as Russia's use of private military companies to serve as proxies in conflicts around the world. They examine what alternative options existed to the Biden Administration's approach to Afghanistan, the role of public opinion and the future trajectory of the country.
Eric Edelman Shield of the Republic Podcast
Defense News
America should re-envision the Eastern Med as a multi-theater power-projection platform
As a new report from the Jewish Institute for National Security of America explains, the Eastern Mediterranean increasingly offers unique strategic opportunities to bolster U.S. forward presence; move forces quickly and efficiently into neighboring regions; and reassure partners without breaking the bank, creating new power vacuums or pulling focus from great power competition.
Eric Edelman DefenseNews
JINSA
At the Center of the Crossroads: A New U.S. Strategy for the East Med
The Eastern Mediterranean sits at the geographic and geostrategic nexus of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. This “sea between the lands” has become a crucial maritime connector for expansionist forces – including Turkey, Iran, Russia, China, and Islamist jihadists seeking to exert power from one of the surrounding regions to the next. At the same time, the Eastern Mediterranean itself is becoming an object of competition, its recently discovered undersea natural gas resources rendering a rich prize for whoever can discover, develop, and export them. In the face of these strategic developments, U.S. partners from around the region and beyond are trying to create new security arrangements to address this growing competition and maintain stability.
Eric Edelman JINSA
Shield of the Republic
There is Nothing For You Here (with Fiona Hill)
Former National Security Council Senior Director for Europe (and star impeachment witness) Fiona Hill is this week's guest discussing her book, There is Nothing For You Here, her service in the Trump Administration, the mortification of Trump's press conference with Putin at Helsinki (and transient thoughts of faking a seizure to make it stop) as well as the causes of and remedies for authoritarian populism.
Eric Edelman Shield of the Republic Podcast
Washington Post
Opinion: President Biden, don’t help our adversaries break NATO
Declaring “America is back,” President Biden has pledged to restore alliance ties badly battered by his predecessor. Nevertheless, his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan caused dismay in NATO capitals, and the administration’s decision to create a British, U.S. and Australian submarine program infuriated France. But both actions pale in significance to what might occur if Biden continues to pursue a major change in U.S. nuclear deterrence policy — despite strong allied opposition — because that change would strike at the heart of transatlantic ties and would be interpreted as a huge step toward decoupling the United States from Europe’s defense. NATO defense ministers queued up to make this point unequivocally to Lloyd Austin at a recent ministerial meeting.
Eric Edelman The Washington Post