Caption
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon on June 22, 2025. (Andrew Harnik via Getty Images)
Peter Rough
Senior Fellow and Director, Center on Europe and Eurasia
At A Glance:
Peter Rough is a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at Hudson Institute.
Contact:
Biography
Peter Rough is a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at Hudson Institute, which he launched in December 2022.
Mr. Rough writes and comments on United States foreign policy and regularly briefs official delegations, news media, public intellectuals, academics, and business leaders from around the world. He is a regular commentator on major radio and television networks and speaker at public and private forums. Mr. Rough also convenes several track 1.5 dialogues and conferences.
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 the 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.
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 Bastion Institute and previously served as a commissioner of the Radio in the American Sector (RIAS) Commission in Berlin. He has also helped edit Hudson’s journal, Current Trends in Islamist Ideology. Mr. Rough is on the board of the American Main Street Initiative, a think tank dedicated to advancing public policy solutions for everyday Americans, and has been named a next generation leader at several think tanks, including the Munich Security Conference.
Mr. Rough is a native German speaker.
Featured Research
08
October 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Relearning Great Power Diplomacy: A Conversation with Wess Mitchell
Featured Speakers:
Wess Mitchell
Peter Rough
23
July 2025
Past Event
Postponed | The State of Republican Foreign Policy with Congressman Jake Ellzey
Featured Speakers:
Congressman Jake Ellzey
Peter Rough
23
July 2025
Past Event
Postponed | The State of Republican Foreign Policy with Congressman Jake Ellzey
Join Peter Rough, senior fellow and director of Hudson’s Center on Europe and Eurasia, for a conversation with Congressman Jake Ellzey (R-TX) on the state of Republican foreign policy and how America can continue to lead with strength on the global stage.
Featured Speakers:
Congressman Jake Ellzey
Peter Rough
08
May 2025
Past Event
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Europe’s Growing Role in Transatlantic Ties
Featured Speakers:
Andrej Plenković
Daniel Kochis
Peter Rough
08
May 2025
Past Event
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Europe’s Growing Role in Transatlantic Ties
At Hudson, Prime Minister Plenković will discuss the future of the EU-US relationship and why strong alliances are important for meeting today’s challenges.
Featured Speakers:
Andrej Plenković
Daniel Kochis
Peter Rough
07
May 2025
Past Event
What’s Happening in Minsk? A Conversation with Belarusian Democratic Leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
Featured Speakers:
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
Peter Rough
07
May 2025
Past Event
What’s Happening in Minsk? A Conversation with Belarusian Democratic Leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
Join Senior Fellow Peter Rough as he sits down with Tsikhanouskaya for a conversation on the state of affairs in Belarus and the geopolitics of Central and Eastern Europe.
Featured Speakers:
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
Peter Rough
Sort by:
Caption
A Swedish CB90-class fast assault craft approaches the well deck of the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall during exercise Steadfast Defender 24 on March 6, 2024, in the Norwegian Sea. (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Danielle Serocki)
Caption
Residential buildings destroyed by shelling in Izyum, Kharkiv, on February 1, 2024. (Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images)
Caption
Communal workers walk next to a crater and destroyed houses following a Russian shelling in Kyiv on December 11, 2023. (Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images)
Caption
Black smoke billows from a fire on the Kerch bridge that links Crimea to Russia after a truck exploded near Kerch on October 8, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)
Caption
US President Joe Biden delivers a statement urging Congress to pass his national security supplemental from the Roosevelt Room at the White House on December 6, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images)