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 National Interest
America and the Geopolitics of Upheaval
The friendly contours of the post–Cold War system have given way to a darker and more challenging environment.
Eric Edelman The National Interest
CSBA
Why Is the World So Unsettled? The End of the Post-Cold War Era and the Crisis of Global Order
U.S. foreign policy is likely to be wracked by crises in the coming years. Yet crises are often symptoms of deeper structural transformations, and the fundamental fact of international politics today is that the post-Cold War era has reached its end.
Eric Edelman Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments
Weekly Standard
It's Time for NATO to Call Turkey's Bluff
Thursday's NATO Summit provides an opportunity for the alliance to get tough on its putative Turkish ally. Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's destabilizing policies in Europe and the Middle East have made it appear less an ally and more a Russian Trojan horse.
Eric Edelman The Weekly Standard
Weekly Standard
Erdogan's Counter-Revolution
It is a cliché in Washington to say that a given country or issue is at an "inflection point," but that hackneyed phrase tells the truth about today's Turkey.
Eric Edelman The Weekly Standard
NSA logo
Watch: National security under Trump
Most presidents, and the professionals throughout the government, seek stability and predictability in foreign affairs. President Trump succeeded, however, though disruption and the violation of longstanding norms. What are the inherent risks in this clash of opposites, both to the administration and the security of the nation?
Tom van der Voort Miller Center
Eric S. Edelman on American Forum
Traditional conservatives and Donald Trump
As President-elect Trump assembles his team of national security leaders, he is already challenging some of the pillars of both recent Democratic and Republican foreign policy agendas. Eric Edelman, former diplomat and now a Miller Center Senior Fellow, is one of a group of foreign policy professionals who signed a letter against Trump.