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Senior Fellow for Defense Policy, Council on Foreign Relations

C.V. Starr Distinguished Visitor - Class of Spring 2007


Stephen Biddle is a senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. His areas of expertise include US national security policy, military strategy and the conduct of war, technology in modern warfare, and recent operations in the war on terror. Before joining the Council in January 2006, Biddle served as associate professor and Elihu Root Chair of Military Studies at the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (SSI). He has served as US representative to the NATO Defense Research Group study on stable defense and has testified before congressional committees on issues relating to Operation Iraqi Freedom, conventional net assessment, and European arms control. He is a member of the Defense Department Senior Advisory Group on Homeland Defense and co-director of the Columbia University Summer Workshop on the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy (SWAMOS). He also holds an appointment as adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Biddle’s book Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle (Princeton, 2004), won the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award Silver Medal for 2005, the Harvard University Huntington Prize for 2005, the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science’s 2005 Koopman Prize, and the Army War College Foundation’s 2005 Madigan Award. His other publications include articles in Foreign Affairs, International Security; and 28 IDA, SSI, and NATO reports. His research has won Barchi, Rist, and Impact prizes from the Military Operations Research Society, and he was awarded the Army Superior Civilian Service Medal in 2003. Stephen Biddle holds AB (1981), MPP (1985), and PhD (public policy, 1992) degrees, all from Harvard University.

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