Anthony H. Cordesman

Anthony H. Cordesman holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Cordesman's expertise is in "Middle East and South Asia security issues; U.S. national security; lessons of modern war; defense budgeting; defense intelligence; and military balance."

Cordesman is "also a national security analyst for ABC News, and his television commentary has been featured prominently during the Gulf War, Desert Fox, the conflict in Kosovo, and the fighting in Afghanistan

"During his time at CSIS, Professor Cordesman has been director of the Gulf Net Assessment Project and the Gulf in Transition study, and principal investigator of the CSIS Homeland Defense Project. He has led studies on national missile defense, asymmetric warfare and weapons of mass destruction, and critical infrastructure protection. He has also written on U.S. defense programs and force transformation, the Western military balance, the nuclear balance, arms control in the Arab-Israeli military balance, the economic stability of North Africa, the Asian military balance, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

"He directed the CSIS Middle East Net Assessment Program and acted as codirector of the CSIS Strategic Energy Initiative. He is the author of a wide range of studies on U.S. security policy, energy policy, and Middle East policy, a number of which are available on the CSIS Web site (www.csis.org).

"Professor Cordesman has previously served as national security assistant to Senator John McCain of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as director of intelligence assessment in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, as civilian assistant to the deputy secretary of defense, and as director of policy and planning for resource applications in the Department of Energy. He has also served in numerous other government positions, including in the State Department and on NATO International Staff, and he has had numerous foreign assignments, including posts in Lebanon, Egypt, and Iran, with extensive work in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

"Professor Cordesman is the author of more than 20 books, including a four-volume series on the lessons of modern war. His recent books include Terrorism, Asymmetric Warfare, and Weapons of Mass Destruction (Praeger, 2002), Cyber-threats, Information Warfare, and Critical Infrastructure Protection (Praeger, 2002), Strategic Threats and National Missile Defenses (Praeger, 2002), The Lessons and Non-Lessons of the Air and Missile Campaign in Kosovo (Praeger, 2001), Peace and War (Praeger, 2001), A Tragedy of Arms (Praeger, 2001), Iraq and the War of Sanctions (Praeger, 2000), and Iran's Military Forces in Transition (Praeger, 2000).

"He has been awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal. A former adjunct professor of national security studies at Georgetown University, he has twice been a Wilson Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution."

Other affiliations
Cordesman has also had an avocational interest in "esoteric" high-fidelity audio and has written numerous qualitative (or "golden ear") equipment reviews for such publications as The Absolute Sound and Stereophile.


 * Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces: International Advisory Board
 * Advisory Board (2009), Praeger Security International

Contact information
Phone: 202 775-3270 E-mail: acordesman AT aol.com

Related SourceWatch articles

 * troop surge in Iraq

External articles

 * Center for Strategic & International Studies, Anthony H. Cordesman, undated, Accessed March 2004.
 * The Quarterly Report on Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq: "Fact, Fallacy, and an Overall Grade of "F", June 8, 2006, review of the Pentagon's quarterly report, "says that the Defense Department's latest report to Congress on the status of the Iraq war borders on "deception" by painting an overly upbeat picture."
 * Greg Sargent, "Iraq Travel Companion Of O'Hanlon, Pollack Reveals: I'm Much More Pessimistic About Iraq," Talking Points Memo, August 7, 2007. re Michael E. O'Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack and Anthony H. Cordesman, "The Tenuous Case for Strategic Patience in Iraq: A Trip Report," Center for Strategic & International Studies, August 6, 2007.
 * Satyam Khanna, "O’Hanlon/Pollack Rebuffed By Travel Companion Cordesman: ‘I Did Not See Any Dramatic Change’," Think Progress, August 9, 2007.