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

Washington Post
Fight for these State Department workers detained in Turkey
President Trump has expended significant political capital working to win the freedom of pastor Andrew Brunson, an American detained in Turkey for nearly two years now on baseless espionage and terrorism charges. Trump is right to do so, but he and his administration also have a moral obligation to come to the aid of three State Department workers facing a similar plight.
Eric Edelman The Washington Post
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at lecterns
'He threw the usual playbook out the window'
On Wednesday, July 18, Miller Center Senior Fellow Eric Edelman, a 30-year veteran diplomat, former ambassador to Finland and Turkey, and former National Security Advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, offered his thoughts on President Trump's controversial press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also assessed the president's performance during the NATO meeting that preceded it and the ongoing course of U.S. diplomacy.
Turkey's President Erdoğan in front of nation's flag
Q & A: Edelman on Erdoğan
I think Turkey, unfortunately, is become a leading example of what some political scientists call electoral authoritarianism. There are other examples of this, like Russia and Egypt and a number of other countries for that matter, where the government allow elections, albeit with lots of restrictions, but they govern in a very authoritarian way.
Washington Post
Turkey’s president is holding Americans hostage. Why aren’t we doing anything about it?
Brunson is not a prisoner but a hostage, whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is cynically using to extort concessions from the United States, a fellow member of NATO. It is high time for President Trump to press for Brunson’s immediate and unconditional release.
Eric Edelman The Washington Post
Weekly Standard
Erdogan's Rising Islamist Militarism
Nationalism is running high in Turkey. Ankara is at war with Kurdish insurgents in the country’s southeast, and across the border in Syria since January. Moreover, Turkey has been under a state of emergency since mid-2016, when a rogue group within the military attempted a coup against Erdogan’s government, killing some 200 civilians. Amid the growing number of enemies at home and abroad, Erdogan has done his best to promote militarism among the populace, including by openly encouraging the formation of civilian militias claiming to defend his government—and the Turkish nation.
Eric Edelman The Weekly Standard
POLITICO
Turkey Is Out of Control. Time for the U.S. to Say So.
Following Turkey’s incursion into Syria, the once unthinkable prospect of a direct clash between Turkish and American soldiers has become alarmingly real. Turkey’s current fight, against U.S.-backed Kurdish troops in the northwestern Syria territory of Afrin, is destabilizing enough. But the real risk will come if Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan follows through on his repeated promises to press further east toward the Kurdish-controlled and U.S.-patrolled city of Manbij. The only way to prevent a conflict is for U.S. policymakers to adopt a clear and tough-minded approach to Turkey now, before things get worse.
Eric Edelman POLITICO Magazine