Peter Rough

Senior Fellow and Director, Center on Europe and Eurasia

peter_rough

At A Glance:

Peter Rough is a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at Hudson Institute.

Biography

Peter Rough is a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at Hudson Institute. In that capacity, he writes and comments on US foreign policy and regularly briefs official delegations, news media, public intellectuals, academics, and business leaders from around the world. Mr. Rough also convenes several track 1.5 dialogues.

Mr. Rough is a regular commentator on major radio and television and speaker in public forums. While at the institute, he has been named a next generation leader at the Munich Security Conference, Atlantik-Brücke, the Center for New American Security, and the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies. He has also helped edit Hudson’s journal, Current Trends in Islamist Ideology.

Mr. Rough is also principal and founder of Hilltop Solutions, a limited liability company that performs writing and research services for academics, executives, and political professionals. Previously, as director of research in the Office of George W. Bush, Mr. Rough assisted the former president with his memoir, Decision Points. In 2014, his highly acclaimed collaboration with Leila Fawaz on a social history of World War I in the Middle East, A Land of Aching Hearts, was published by Harvard University Press.

From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Rough served as associate director in the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives, where he helped coordinate political strategy and outreach to key stakeholders. He has also completed stints as a policy analyst at the US Agency for International Development, where he was staff briefer to Administrator Henrietta Fore, and as an advisor to US Army Special Operations Command, where he analyzed unconventional warfare doctrine for the commanding general’s Strategic Initiatives Group. In 2012, he was responsible for US-Russia bilateral relations as a member of the Romney for President Russia Working Group. In 2016, he served as a member of the Rubio for President Middle East Working Group.

Mr. Rough began his career at the Republican National Committee specializing in political research. A proud native of Des Moines, Iowa, he holds his BA, summa cum laude, from the George Washington University and MA in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he was a Cabot corporation scholar.

He is a member of the board of the American Main Street Initiative and previously was a commissioner of the Radio in the American Sector (RIAS) Commission in Berlin. Mr. Rough is also a member of the Friends of Ukraine Network’s (FOUN) Task Force on National Security and vice chair of the Reagan Institute’s Foreign for American Leadership Europe group.

Mr. Rough is a native German speaker.

Events
25
March 2024
Past Event
Enhancing Northern European Security
Featured Speakers:
Dame Karen Pierce
Peter Rough
Luke Coffey
Andrew Michta
Moderator:
Jeremy Hunt
The first ever Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing (SRVL) has been carried out with an F-35B Lightning II joint strike fighter jet conducting trials onboard the new British aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth. (Courtesy photo by Royal Navy)
25
March 2024
Past Event
Enhancing Northern European Security

Join Hudson for an event that will examine the new policy memo “Geopolitical Changes in Northern Europe Require a Fresh Approach to the Region.”

The first ever Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing (SRVL) has been carried out with an F-35B Lightning II joint strike fighter jet conducting trials onboard the new British aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth. (Courtesy photo by Royal Navy)
Featured Speakers:
Dame Karen Pierce
Peter Rough
Luke Coffey
Andrew Michta
Moderator:
Jeremy Hunt
25
March 2024
Past Event
The Baltic View of European Security
Featured Speakers:
Gabrielius Landsbergis
Krišjānis Kariņš
Margus Tsahkna
Moderator:
Peter Rough
Fighter jets execute a flyover dedicated to the nineteenth anniversary of Lithuania's accession to NATO on March 29, 2023, in Vilnius, Lithuania. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)
25
March 2024
Past Event
The Baltic View of European Security

The foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia will sit down with Hudson’s Peter Rough.

Fighter jets execute a flyover dedicated to the nineteenth anniversary of Lithuania's accession to NATO on March 29, 2023, in Vilnius, Lithuania. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Gabrielius Landsbergis
Krišjānis Kariņš
Margus Tsahkna
Moderator:
Peter Rough
28
February 2024
Past Event
Taking Stock of Ukraine in 2024
Featured Speakers:
Lieutenant General Karel Řehka
Lieutenant General Leonard Kosinski
Jan Jireš
Oksana Markarova
Mark Newton
Maria Tomak
Luke Coffey
Rebeccah L. Heinrichs
Rustem Umerov
Moderators:
Peter Rough
Jeremy Hunt
A Ukrainian flag is hanging in the window of an apartment building that has been heavily damaged during Russia's massive rocket attack on Kyiv, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 3, 2024. (Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
28
February 2024
Past Event
Taking Stock of Ukraine in 2024
A Ukrainian flag is hanging in the window of an apartment building that has been heavily damaged during Russia's massive rocket attack on Kyiv, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 3, 2024. (Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Lieutenant General Karel Řehka
Lieutenant General Leonard Kosinski
Jan Jireš
Oksana Markarova
Mark Newton
Maria Tomak
Luke Coffey
Rebeccah L. Heinrichs
Rustem Umerov
Moderators:
Peter Rough
Jeremy Hunt
14
February 2024
Past Event
Goodbye Globalization: A Book Event with Elisabeth Braw
Featured Speakers:
Elizabeth Braw
Peter Rough
.
14
February 2024
Past Event
Goodbye Globalization: A Book Event with Elisabeth Braw
.
Featured Speakers:
Elizabeth Braw
Peter Rough
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy during the FOX Business Republican Primary Debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on September 27, 2023, in Simi Valley, California. (Justin Sullivan via Getty Images)
Caption
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy during the FOX Business Republican Primary Debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on September 27, 2023, in Simi Valley, California. (Justin Sullivan via Getty Images)
Default Expert Image
Senior Fellow and Director, Center on Europe and Eurasia
Senior Fellow
Commentary
4 Min Read