John B. Bellinger III

Adjunct Senior Fellow for International and National Security Law

Profile picture

Expert Bio

John B. Bellinger III is adjunct senior fellow for international and national security law at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is also a partner at Arnold & Porter LLP in Washington, DC, where he advises sovereign governments and companies on a variety of international law and U.S. national security law issues.

From 2005 to 2009, Bellinger was the legal advisor for the U.S. Department of State under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He led the U.S. delegation in numerous treaty negotiations and presentations to international bodies and represented the United States before the International Court of Justice in Mexico v. United States of America (Medellín) and before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal. Before his confirmation as legal advisor, he managed Secretary Rice’s Senate confirmation and codirected her State Department transition team. Bellinger served from 2001 to 2005 as senior associate counsel to the president and legal advisor to the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House, where he was the principal lawyer for the national security advisor, the NSC, and the NSC staff. He previously served as counsel for national security matters in the criminal division of the Justice Department during the Clinton administration, as special counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as special assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William H. Webster.

Bellinger is one of four U.S. members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which nominates judges to the International Court of Justice. He speaks and writes regularly on public international and national security law issues. His op-eds have appeared in the New York TimesWashington PostWall Street Journal, and International Herald Tribune. Bellinger received his AB from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1982, his JD from Harvard Law School in 1986, and an MA in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia in 1991.

affiliations

  • Arnold & Porter LLP, partner
  • American Ditchley Foundation, board of directors, member
  • American Law Institute, Executive Council, member
  • Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, board of directors, member
  • Salzburg Global Seminar, board of directors, member
  • Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on International Law, member
  • Stimson Center, board of directors, member
Clear All
Regions
Topics
Type

Top Stories on CFR

Foreign Policy

A dispatch from the Munich Security Conference, where dark clouds hovered over the discussions on Europe’s security and recent events in Germany. The war in Ukraine dominated, with uncertainty about the U.S. role and Trump’s approach. Topics like climate change and AI also took center stage.

China Strategy Initiative

India has enjoyed bipartisan support in the U.S. as a critical economic counterbalance to China, but the United States still has a tenuous grasp on its interests. In this series, three experts examine India’s position on digital trade, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and industrial policy.

Space

As outer space becomes more congested with debris and international tensions escalate, the threat to U.S. national security grows. The United States must act now to reassert its leadership and create pathways for management in this critical strategic domain.