Edelman
Eric S.
Ambassador Eric S. Edelman is a Roger Hertog Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, Johns Hopkins University SAIS and Counselor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Ambassador Edelman retired as a Career Minister from the U.S. Foreign Service on May 1, 2009. He also serves on the Board of Director at the United States Institute of Peace, an independent national institute dedicated to the proposition that a world without violent conflict is possible, practical, and essential for U.S. and global security.
Ambassador Edelman served in senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense as well as the White House. As the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, he oversaw strategy development as DoD’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. He served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republics of Finland and Turkey in the Clinton and Bush Administrations and was Principal Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs. In other assignments, he has been Chief of Staff to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, special assistant to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Robert Kimmitt and special assistant to Secretary of State George Shultz.
Ambassador Edelman has been awarded the Department of Defense, Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, several Department of State Superior Honor Awards and the Legion d’Honneur by the French Government. He received a B.A. in History and Government from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in U.S. Diplomatic History from Yale University.