In the Shadow of the Oval Office

Ivo H. Daalder is a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. Daalder is a frequent commentator on current affairs and his writings have appeared in numerous journals and the opinion pages of leading American and European newspapers. A specialist in American foreign policy, European security, and national security affairs, Daalder has authored twelve books, including the award-winning America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy (with James M. Lindsay). His most recent book (with I.M. Destler) is In the Shadow of the Oval Office—From John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush:

The National Security Adviser, published by Simon & Schuster in early 2009. His other recent books include Beyond Preemption: Force and Legitimacy in a Changing World (2007); Crescent of Crisis: U.S.-European Strategy for the Greater Middle East (2006); Protecting the American Homeland (2002); and Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo (2000).

Prior to joining Brookings, Daalder was associate professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs, where he was also director of research at the Center for International and Security Studies. In 1995-96, he served as director for European Affairs on President Clinton's National Security Council staff, where he was responsible for coordinating U.S. policy toward Bosnia. From 1998-2001, Daalder served as a member of the Study Group of the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (the Hart-Rudman Commission), a multi-year examination of U.S. national security requirements and institutions.

Daalder was educated at Oxford and Georgetown Universities, and received his Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a fellow at Harvard University's Center for Science and International Affairs and the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He is the recipient of a Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs and an International Affairs Fellowship of the Council on Foreign Relations. Daalder is a member of the Academy of Political Science, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Ivo Daalder was born in the Hague, the Netherlands, in 1960. He is married to Elisa D. Harris, and they and their two sons live in the Washington, D.C. area.

I. M. (Mac) Destler is Saul I. Stern Professor at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland and Director of its program on International Security and Economic Policy. He was Acting Dean of the School in 1994-95, Director of the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) from 1992 to 1999, and Director of the Ph.D. program from 2000 to 2007. His most recent book, In the Shadow of the Oval Office (Simon and Schuster, 2009, co-authored with Ivo H. Daalder), asesses the role of the President's national security adviser from the Kennedy through the George W. Bush adminstration.

Destler is also Visiting Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (IIE), where he analyzes the political economy of trade. His American Trade Politics, (fourth edition, 2005), won the Gladys M. Kammerer Award, American Political Science Association, for the best book on U.S. national policy. It is the Institute's all-time best-seller, with our 100,000 copies in print. Other recent works include Protecting the American Homeland: One Year On (Brookings Institution, 2003, multiple authors) and Misreading the Public: The Myth of a New Isolationism (Brookings for CISSM, 1999, co-authored with Steven Kull). Destler received the University of Maryland's Distinguished International Service Award for 1998.

Destler has taught at Princeton University, the International University of Japan, and the University of Nigeria. He has consulted on economic and foreign policy organization at the Executive Office of the President and the Department of State, and on higher education in applied economics and business for USAID/Central Asia. He has held senior research positions at IIE (1983-87), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1977-83), and the Brookings Institution (1972-77).

Destler received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1961, and his M.P.A. and Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University in 1965 and 1971.