Middle East Strategy at Harvard

Bruce Jentleson is Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University, where he served from 2000-2005 as Director of the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. He is a leading expert on a wide range of issues of American foreign policy, with a distinguished professorial record and extensive policy experience. In 2006-07 he was a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London), and a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Spain.

His publications include numerous articles as well as seven books including American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century, a leading university text on American foreign policy (W.W. Norton, 2000; 2004; 3rd edition, 2007) and Opportunities Missed, Opportunities Seized: Preventive Diplomacy in the Post-Cold War World, a project of the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict (Rowman and Littlefield, 1999). His next books— After Bush: Getting Global Leadership Right; First Principles: Force and Diplomacy in the Contemporary Era; and Profiles in Statesmanship, are in the works.

In 1999-2000 Jentleson served as a senior foreign policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore and the Gore-Lieberman presidential campaign. From 1993 to 1994 he was on the State Department Policy Planning Staff as Special Assistant to the Director, with a broad range of policy responsibilities, including serving on the U.S. delegation to the Middle East Multilateral Arms Control and Regional Security Talks (ACRS). In 1987-88, while a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, he served as a foreign policy advisor to then-Senator Gore.

Prior to coming to Duke, Jentleson was Professor of Political Science at the University of California-Davis, Director of the UC Davis Washington Center, and Washington Research Director of the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC). He also has been a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution, and the recipient of other awards and fellowships, including from the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Social Science Research Council.

He has served as a consultant to the Carnegie Commission for Preventing Deadly Conflict, the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences, the American Assembly, the Atlantic Council and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

He has lectured internationally, including in Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, the Netherlands, Spain, South Korea and Switzerland. He is often quoted in the press and has appeared on such shows as ABC Nightline, the Lehrer News Hour, CNN Crossfire, and BBC.

He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University, and was recipient of the American Political Science Association’s Harold D. Lasswell Award for his doctoral dissertation; a Master’s from the London School of Economics and Political Science; and a Bachelor’s degree also from Cornell.

Posts by Bruce Jentleson