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

Donald Trump
President Trump's United Nations speech
Last week President Donald Trump delivered a major foreign policy address at the United Nations, attacking North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela, while emphasizing US sovereignty. Veteran diplomat Eric Edelman, a Miller Center Senior Fellow, takes a look at Trump's speech and specifically North Korea with the Center's Tom van der Voort.
Politico
How Trump swallowed a bitter Afghanistan pill
“Obama was suspicious of what the generals were telling him. They were telling him to put in more troops than he wanted to,” said Eric Edelman, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy under George W. Bush. “Trump does recognize that just pulling out is not an option. If the Taliban takes over and then there’s a terrorist attack, that is a big political risk for him,” Edelman added.
Eric Edelman POLITICO
Washington Post
A hobbled commander in chief tries to rally the country
The speech was in keeping with Trump’s approach to everything, which is to say it was more about him than anything else.” Edelman pointed out that from the effort to recover from the Charlottesville debacle to his ” ‘I wanted to pull out’ instincts to his pathetic whining about the crappy hand he was dealt — it read less like a carefully thought-out strategy and policy and more like an internal monologue.” He added, “It was not a compelling argument to the public for continued involvement and sacrifice.”
Eric Edelman The Washington Post
National Interest
Is a U.S.-Russia Reset Possible?
That is why Trump’s reset will almost certainly fail—and a good thing, too, since accommodating Moscow’s current demands would almost certainly mean sacrificing traditional U.S. interests.
Eric Edelman The National Interest
Politico
How Trump should handle Iran
Last week, the Trump administration recertified that Iran is complying the nuclear agreement, setting off predictable debate between who those want to exit the deal immediately and those who see it as his predecessor’s signature foreign policy achievement. But for all the will-he-or-won’t-he attention on Trump’s decision, the focus on the nuclear deal is missing the point: The administration’s real agenda on Iran doesn’t hinge on the nuclear agreement—a dangerous deal that puts the U.S. in a impossible situation.
Eric Edelman POLITICO
eric edelman
Edelman to chair national defense strategy commission
The Miller Center's Eric Edelman is named chair of panel assessing military readiness