The Aspen Institute

Eliot Cohen is Robert E. Osgood Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He directs the strategic studies program at SAIS and the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, which he founded. Prior to joining SAIS Dr. Cohen taught at Harvard and at the Naval War College (Department of Strategy) and served on the policy planning staff of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. From April 2007 through January 2009 he served as Counselor of the Department of State. A principal officer of the Department, he had special responsibility for advising the Secretary on matters pertaining to Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Russia, as well as general strategic issues. Eliot Cohen is the author of Conquered into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles along the Great Warpath that made the American Way of War (2011), winner of the Society of Colonial Wars annual book award, and the Huntington prize-winning Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime (2002). His other books are Commandos and Politicians (1978) and Citizens and Soldiers (1985). He is co-author of Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War (1990), Revolution in Warfare? Air Power in the Persian Gulf (1995), and Knives, Tanks, and Missiles: Israel’s Security Revolution (1998), and co-editor of Strategy in the Contemporary World (2002) and War over Kosovo (2001). He has served as a member of the Defense Policy Board and other governmental advisory groups, and was a commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserve. He is currently a member of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and of the Committee on Studies of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was a special adviser on foreign and defense policy to the Presidential campaign of Governor Mitt Romney. He received a B.A. and a Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in 1977 and 1982, respectively.  He is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group.