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

Rudy Giuliani and two other men smoke cigars
The rise of strategic corruption
In recent years, a number of countries—China and Russia, in particular—have found ways to take the kind of corruption that was previously a mere feature of their own political systems and transform it into a weapon on the global stage.
Philip Zelikow, Eric Edelman, Kristofer Harrison, and Celeste Ward Gventer Foreign Affairs
Washington Post
The coronavirus is already reshaping defense strategies
Explained Philip Zelikow, a defense analyst at the University of Virginia: “No country is now more deeply invested in those legacy notions and paradigms than the United States, and no country faces more difficult challenges of adjustment.” But with ballooning deficits, “folks will look a little harder about just what war, exactly, we are thinking about, with less tolerance for ‘Let’s just increase the [Defense Department] topline,’ ” Zelikow told me.
Philip Zelikow The Washington Post
Donald Trump with Ukraine flag over left shoulder
Self-dealing: The core of the impeachment inquiry
Evidence of criminal misconduct, specifically, the federal bribery statute, should influence political judgments about impeachment. After all, “Bribery” is one of the grounds for impeachment specifically enumerated in the Constitution.
Philip Zelikow Lawfare
CBS19
Condoleezza Rice and Philip Zelikow talk about new book at UVA
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Professor Phillip Zelikow of the University of Virginia Miller Center spoke at UVA Thursday about their experience in national security and their recently published book.
Philip Zelikow CBS19
philip zelikow, Condoleezza rice, and Ann Compton on stage
Miller Center hosts Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice and UVA professor Philip Zelikow reflect on Cold War, 9/11, and what's ahead.
Caroline Newman
Bloomberg Opinion
Sept. 11 and the Post-Post-Cold War World
The anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks is in a sort of transition phase. The wounds are no longer fresh after 18 years, but the terrible day is not yet enshrined in the deep historical past. That makes it a good time to take stock of what’s been achieved in the fight against global terrorism, and what remains to be done. I can think of no better person to discuss this than Philip Zelikow. Now a professor of governance at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, Zelikow had a long career inside government, rising to counselor of the State Department under President George W. Bush. But he’s best known for his role as executive director of the federal 9/11 Commission, and thus is the primary author of the commission’s report on the attacks.
Philip Zelikow Bloomberg Opinion