Morton Halperin Re-joins Council

Washington, D.C., January 25, 2001—Morton H. Halperin has rejoined the Council as Senior Fellow, announced Council President Leslie H. Gelb. At the Council, Dr. Halperin will direct a project on democracy, working on a range of issues with an initial focus on the relationship of democracy and economic development. He was a member of the Council’s Studies Department from March 1996 to December 1998 and has now rejoined upon leaving the State Department.

Dr. Halperin served in the Clinton, Nixon, and Johnson administrations. Most recently, from December 1998 to January 2001 he was Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State. From February 1994 to March 1996, he was a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy at the National Security Council. In 1993, he was a consultant to the Secretary of Defense and the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and was nominated by the President for the position of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Democracy and Peacekeeping. In 1969, he was a Senior Staff member of the National Security Council staff with responsibility for National Security Planning. From July 1966 to January 1969, he worked in the Department of Defense where he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs), responsible for political-military planning and arms control.

Dr. Halperin has also been Senior Vice President of The Century Foundation/ Twentieth Century Fund, a Senior Associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies of the Brookings Institution.

In addition to his involvement in foreign policy issues, Dr. Halperin worked for many years for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He served as Director of the Center for National Security Studies from 1975-92, focusing on issues affecting both civil liberties and national security, such as the proper role of intelligence agencies and government secrecy. From 1984-92, he was also the Director of the Washington Office of the ACLU, with responsibility for the ACLU’s national legislative program as well as the activities of the ACLU Foundation based in the Washington Office. From 1960— 66, Dr. Halperin was Assistant Professor of Government and a Research Associate of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. He has taught as a visiting professor at a number of universities, including Columbia, Harvard, MIT, George Washington, Johns Hopkins, and Yale. He has taught courses on bureaucratic politics and foreign policy, human rights policy, arms control, and Congress and foreign policy.

Dr. Halperin has authored, coauthored and edited more than a dozen books including Strategy and Arms Control (1961), Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy (1974), Nuclear Fallacy (1987), and Self-Determination in the New World Order (1992). He has also contributed articles to a number of newspapers, magazines, and journals, including the New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Harpers, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy, on subjects including national security and civil liberties, bureaucratic politics, Japan, China, military strategy, and arms control.

Dr. Halperin received a BA from Columbia College and a Ph.D. in International Relations from Yale University. He is a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

A MacArthur Foundation Fellow from 1985-90, Dr. Halperin is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, the Wilbur Cross Medal awarded by the Yale Graduate Alumni Association, the John Jay Award given by Columbia College, and the Public Service Award of the Federation of American Scientists.