Experts

Philip Zelikow

White Burkett Miller Emeritus Professor of History

Fast Facts

  • Former Miller Center director
  • Executive Director, 9/11 Commission
  • Elected member, American Academy of Diplomacy
  • Expertise in American foreign policy, military history, European military history, Cuban missile crisis

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • American Defense and Security
  • War and Terrorism
  • Domestic Affairs
  • Governance
  • Congress
  • Leadership
  • Politics
  • The Presidency

Philip Zelikow is the White Burkett Miller Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Virginia, where he has also served as dean of the Graduate School and director of the Miller Center. His scholarly work has focused on critical episodes in American and world history. 

He was a trial and appellate lawyer and then a career diplomat before taking academic positions at Harvard, then Virginia. Before and during his academic career, he has served at all levels of American government. His federal service during five administrations has included positions in the White House, State Department, and the Pentagon. His last full-time government position was as the counselor of the Department of State, a deputy to Secretary Condoleezza Rice. 

He directed a small and short-lived federal agency, the 9/11 Commission. He also directed an earlier bipartisan commission on election reform, chaired by former Presidents Carter and Ford, that led to successful passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002. More recently he was managing director of “Rework America,” a landmark project on American economic opportunity in the digital age, organized by the Markle Foundation. 

He is one of the few individuals ever to serve on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Boards for presidents of both parties, in the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He has also been a member of the Defense Policy Board for Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and a member of the board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2020, he was elected a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.

Featured Publications

The Road Less Traveled
The Road Less Traveled: The Secret Battle to End the Great War, 1916-1917

Philip Zelikow

To Build a Better World
To Build a Better World

Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice

Suez Deconstructed
Suez Deconstructed: An Interactive Study in Crisis, War, and Peacemaking

Philip Zelikow

9/11
The 9/11 Commission Report

Philip Zelikow

Philip Zelikow News Feed

Miller Center Presents
The presidency and endless war
Since 1776, the United States has been at war 93 percent of the time—227 out of 244 years, according to Global Research. Why is that? And what does it mean for the future of our nation, at home and abroad? This half-day public conference will focus on the roots, management, and direction of so-called “endless wars.” During the five sessions, speakers will consider the political, legal, military, cultural, and governance implications of remaining engaged in these indefinite conflicts, and the future prospects of fighting a “forever war."
Philip Zelikow Miller Center Presents
Brent Scowcroft talking to Robert Gates, picture in blue and black
Brent Scowcroft and American military intervention
The passing of Brent Scowcroft is an opportunity for a bit of reflection about the U.S. foreign policy elite and its attitude toward American military intervention in world affairs.
Philip Zelikow War on the Rocks
The New York Times
Top Republican National Security Officials Say They Will Vote for Biden
Four years after 50 of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials warned that Donald J. Trump “would be the most reckless president in American history,” they are back with a new letter, declaring his presidency worse than they had imagined and urging voters to support former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Philip Zelikow The New York Times
Daily Progress
Miller Center panelists reflect on George H.W Bush's legacy as a statesman
“In America, in China, all through the world, people are questioning their systems of government ad in the midst of an economic crisis,” Zelikow said. “And meanwhile, we have rising military tensions, all the more reason to think about statecraft.”
Philip Zelikow The Daily Progress
Vladimir Putin in dark silhouette
A reply to President Putin
The European Parliament and President Putin are distorting the lessons of World War II. But their debate spotlights questions about the future of world order in the 2020s.
Philip Zelikow The American Interest
H-Diplo
Not What I Had Planned
Like many others, I was a child of U.S. foreign policy. During the Second World War my mother, while a teenager, found work as a civilian secretary for the Army to help support her invalid father. After the war, once she turned 21, the Army sent her to work at bases in occupied Japan and Okinawa. Returning to the West Coast, she met and married a carrier pilot who flew F9Fs off the USS Essex during the Korean War. He went into the reserves after that war and they moved to Texas. They then both met other people, divorced, and remarried, but Texas is where I stayed, taking the last name of my adoptive father.
Philip Zelikow H-Diplo