At A Glance:

Douglas J. Feith is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute writing and lecturing on such topics as terrorism, arms control, alliance relations, national security policy making and the relationship of policy and intelligence.

Biography

Douglas J. Feith is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. He works on a range of foreign and defense issues, writing and lecturing on such topics as terrorism, arms control, alliance relations, national security policy making and the relationship of policy and intelligence. His projects at Hudson have examined US policy toward East and South Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Middle East. He is writing a history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Mr. Feith served as under secretary of defense for policy from July 2001 to August 2005. In that position, he helped devise the US government's strategy for the war on terrorism and contributed to policy for the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns. Feith's duties included managing the Defense Department's international relations and representing the Department in interagency policy making. War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism, Mr. Feith's best-selling memoir of his Pentagon work on the war on terrorism, was published in 2008.

Mr. Feith helped plan the worldwide changes in the US defense posture, develop new US strategic partnerships with India and Pakistan, promote NATO enlargement and reform, and craft US policy toward China. Feith advised President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld on the range of national security issues, including the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran, the counter-insurgency in Colombia, and Palestinian-Israeli peace diplomacy.

Prior to this, Mr. Feith spent 15 years as the managing attorney of the Washington, DC law firm Feith & Zell, PC. In the Reagan administration, Mr. Feith worked at the White House as a Middle East specialist for the National Security Council and then served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for negotiations policy.

After each of his Pentagon tours, Mr. Feith received the Distinguished Public Service Medal, the Defense Department's highest civilian award.

Mr. Feith's writings on foreign and defense affairs have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Commentary, the New Republic, and elsewhere. He has contributed chapters to a number of books, including Churchill as Peacemaker; Israel's Legitimacy in Law and History; and Hydra of Carnage: International Linkages of Terrorism.

Mr. Feith was a Belfer Center visiting scholar at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He held the position of professor and distinguished practitioner in national security policy at Georgetown University from 2006 to 2008, and was a distinguished visiting fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He holds a JD (magna cum laude) from the Georgetown University Law Center and an AB (magna cum laude) from Harvard College.

Events
22
February 2018
Past Event
In the Taiwan Strait, China Sets its Own Rules
Featured Speakers:
Dr. Seth Cropsey
Douglas J. Feith
Peter Wood
Vice Adm. Mark Fox (ret.)
22
February 2018
Past Event
In the Taiwan Strait, China Sets its Own Rules

Seth Cropsey, Doug Feith, Vice Admiral Mark Fox (ret.), and Peter Wood will discuss China's policy in the Taiwan Strait.

Featured Speakers:
Dr. Seth Cropsey
Douglas J. Feith
Peter Wood
Vice Adm. Mark Fox (ret.)
26
September 2016
Past Event
Can Israel Become a Maritime Power?
Featured Speakers:
Douglas J. Feith
Admiral (ret.) Ami Ayalon
Admiral (ret.) Shaul Chorev
Seth Cropsey
Admiral (ret.) Gary Roughead
26
September 2016
Past Event
Can Israel Become a Maritime Power?

Adm. Ami Ayalon, Adm. Shaul Chorev, Seth Cropsey, Doug Feith and Adm. Gary Roughead discuss the Commission on the Eastern Mediterranean's report.

Featured Speakers:
Douglas J. Feith
Admiral (ret.) Ami Ayalon
Admiral (ret.) Shaul Chorev
Seth Cropsey
Admiral (ret.) Gary Roughead
22
October 2013
Past Event
Power Shifts in the Eastern Mediterranean: The Emerging Strategic Relationship of Israel, Greece, and Cyprus
Featured Speakers:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Seth Cropsey
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL)
H.E. Christos Panagopoulos
H.E. George Chacalli
Eli Groner
Douglas J. Feith
Hillel Fradkin
David Wurmser
Joshua Walker
Alexandros Petersen
Charles Ellinas
Nicholas Karambelas
Default Event Image
22
October 2013
Past Event
Power Shifts in the Eastern Mediterranean: The Emerging Strategic Relationship of Israel, Greece, and Cyprus

The discovery of massive quantities of hydrocarbons in both the Israeli and Cypriot exclusive economic zones, and the selection of the Trans Adriatic

Default Event Image
Featured Speakers:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Seth Cropsey
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL)
H.E. Christos Panagopoulos
H.E. George Chacalli
Eli Groner
Douglas J. Feith
Hillel Fradkin
David Wurmser
Joshua Walker
Alexandros Petersen
Charles Ellinas
Nicholas Karambelas
16
October 2013
Past Event
“Minimum Deterrence: Examining the Evidence”
Featured Speakers:
Douglas J. Feith
John Harvey
Ambassador Robert Joseph
ADM Richard Miles, USN (ret)
Keith Payne
Default Event Image
16
October 2013
Past Event
“Minimum Deterrence: Examining the Evidence”

Recently, President Obama called for large reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal from the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty levels, which could lea

Default Event Image
Featured Speakers:
Douglas J. Feith
John Harvey
Ambassador Robert Joseph
ADM Richard Miles, USN (ret)
Keith Payne
Members of the Australian Jewish community participate in a gathering called 'Balloons of Hope', which represents Israeli hostages who are currently being held by the Palestinian group Hamas, in Sydney, on October 27, 2023. (David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)
Caption
Members of the Australian Jewish community participate in a gathering called 'Balloons of Hope', which represents Israeli hostages who are currently being held by the Palestinian group Hamas, in Sydney, on October 27, 2023. (David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)
In the Media
President Joe Biden participates in a phone call with Quint leaders Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, and United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on October 9, 2023, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Adam Schultz via Flickr)
Caption
President Joe Biden participates in a phone call with Quint leaders Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, and United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on October 9, 2023, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Adam Schultz via Flickr)
A veiled Iranian woman holds an effigy of US President Joe Biden while standing in front of a portrait of the former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani, and an image of al-Aqsa mosque during a rally commemorating the International Quds Day in downtown Tehran on April 29, 2022. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Caption
A veiled Iranian woman holds an effigy of US President Joe Biden while standing in front of a portrait of the former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani, and an image of al-Aqsa mosque during a rally commemorating the International Quds Day in downtown Tehran on April 29, 2022. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)