Expertise: 
American Political History
International Diplomacy
Military History
U.S. Presidency

Philip Zelikow

Distinguished Visiting Fellow
Biography: 

Philip Zelikow is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. 

Zelikow is the White Burkett Miller Professor of History and the J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, both at the University of Virginia. His books and essays focus on critical episodes in American and world history. A former civil rights attorney and career diplomat, he has served at all levels of American government. He was the executive director of the 9/11 Commission and, before that, directed the Carter-Ford Commission on Federal Election Reform. He has also worked on international policy in each of the five administrations from Reagan through Obama. 

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Recent Commentary

Analysis and Commentary

Brent Scowcroft And American Military Intervention

by Philip Zelikowvia War on the Rocks
Monday, August 24, 2020

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. There is a tendency, here and there, to think of such an elite as a “blob” with common views. There is no meaningful definition of the U.S. foreign policy elite between, say, 1980 and at least 2010, that would not have included Brent Scowcroft. Nor was he a marginal figure in that group.

Articles
Analysis and Commentary

A Reply To President Putin

by Philip Zelikowvia The American Interest
Friday, July 31, 2020

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.

Articles
Interviews

Condoleezza Rice, Philip Zelikow Reflect On Cold War In Virtual Discussion

interview with Condoleezza Rice, Philip Zelikow, Elizabeth Cobbsvia Texas A&M University
Friday, May 29, 2020

Hoover Institution fellows Condoleezza Rice, and Philip Zelikow discuss their latest book, To Build a Better World: Choices to End the Cold War and Create a Global Commonwealth, with Hoover Institution fellow Elizabeth Cobbs.

Articles
Analysis and Commentary

Self-dealing In Ukraine: The Core Of The Impeachment Inquiry

by Philip Zelikowvia Lawfare
Monday, October 21, 2019

As the Ukraine story develops, the public focus has remained largely on wrongdoing by the president outside the realm of criminal law, focusing instead on President Trump’s apparent use of his office for personal gain. On one level, this makes sense: Impeachment is only about removal of the president from office, not about criminal prosecution and imprisonment. So the standards and processes for impeachment are different.

Articles

To Build a Better World

by Condoleezza Rice, Philip Zelikowvia Books by Hoover Fellows
Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Two of America's leading scholar-diplomats, Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, have combed sources in several languages, interviewed leading figures, and drawn on their own firsthand experience to bring to life the choices that molded the contemporary world. Zeroing in on the key moments of decision, the might-have-beens, and the human beings working through them, they explore both what happened and what could have happened, to show how one world ended and another took form. Beginning in the late 1970s and carrying into the present, they focus on the momentous period between 1988 and 1992, when an entire world system changed, states broke apart, and societies were transformed. Such periods have always been accompanied by terrible wars-but not this time.

Books
Featured

To Regain Policy Competence: The Software of American Public Problem-Solving

by Philip Zelikowvia Texas National Security Network
Friday, September 20, 2019

American policymaking has declined over the past several decades, but it is something that can be regained. It is not ephemeral or lost to the mists of time. The skills needed to tackle public problem-solving are specific and cultural — and they are teachable.

Articles

Getting to Zero: Part 1

with Philip Zelikow, George P. Shultz, Richard Perle, Henry A. Kissinger, Thomas Graham, Vladimir Dvorkin, Sergio Duarte, Graham Allisonvia Uncommon Knowledge
Thursday, October 25, 2007

Getting to Zero: Part 1, the sixth session from the Hoover Institution's Reykjavik Revisited: Steps Toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons featuring all participants. (57:11)

Videos

Getting to Zero: Part 2

with Philip Zelikow, George P. Shultz, Richard Perle, Henry A. Kissinger, Thomas Graham, Vladimir Dvorkin, Sergio Duarte, Graham Allisonvia Uncommon Knowledge
Thursday, October 25, 2007

Getting to Zero: Part 2, the sixth session from the Hoover Institution's Reykjavik Revisited: Steps Toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons featuring all participants. (1:14:39)

Videos