Morton H. Halperin

Senior Director for Democracy, National Security Council

Morton H. HalperinMorton H. Halperin is Senior Advisor to the Open Society Institute and the Open Society Policy Center.

Dr. Halperin served in the federal government in the Clinton, Nixon and Johnson administrations and was involved in nuclear policy and arms control issues in all three administrations. 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 associated with a number of think tanks including the New America Foundation’s Nuclear Strategy Working Group, the Center for American Progress, and the Council on Foreign Relations among others. Additionally, Dr. Halperin 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 many of them on issues related to nuclear policy and arms control. These include Strategy and Arms Control (1961, with Thomas C. Schelling), Limited War in the Nuclear Age, (1963), China and the Bomb (1965), Contemporary Military Strategy (1967), Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy (1974), and Nuclear Fallacy (1987). He has also authored monographs on nuclear policy issues for IDA and IISS among others and contributed articles to a number of book collections, newspapers, magazines, and journals, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Harpers, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy, on subjects including China, nuclear strategy, and arms control.

Dr. Halperin was a MacArthur Foundation Fellow from 1985 to 1990 and 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.

Writing

  • Deter and Contain Iraq
    Senior Advisor, Open Society Institute, with many works under Publications & Articles