Iran and the evolving crisis in the Middle East

Eric Edelman, a Miller Center practitioner senior fellow, retired as a career minister from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2009 after having served in senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense as well as the White House. As the undersecretary of defense for policy (2005–2009), he oversaw strategy development as the Defense Department’s senior policy official with global responsibility for bilateral defense relations, war plans, special operations forces, homeland defense, missile defense, nuclear weapons and arms control policies, counter-proliferation, counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, arms sales, and defense trade controls. Edelman served as U.S. ambassador to the Republics of Finland and Turkey in the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and was principal deputy assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney for national security affairs.

Philip B. K. Potter, a Miller Center faculty senior fellow, is executive director of the National Security Data and Policy Institute, the University of Virginia’s sixth university-level institute. A professor of public policy and the founding director of the Frank Batten School's National Security Policy Center, Potter’s decades of research have focused on U.S. foreign policy, military affairs, data analysis, and international security. He serves as a university expert for the intelligence community and a senior advisor in the Department of Defense. He is an active voice in both academia and government on national security research and policy.  He holds a BA from McGill University and an MA and PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mara Rudman is a practitioner senior fellow at the Miller Center, where she formerly directed the Ripples of Hope Project aimed at identifying practical approaches to help democratic leaders resolve key challenges. She previously served as a Miller Center Schlesinger Distinguished Professor and on the 2022 National Defense Strategy Commission. She serves on the Howard University College of Arts and Sciences board of advisors and also consults for Democracy Forward. She was executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress, and her government positions have included serving as deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs in the Obama and Clinton administrations; deputy envoy for the Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace at the U.S. Department of State; assistant administrator for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development; and chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She received an AB from Dartmouth College and a JD from Harvard Law School.

William J. Antholis has served as director and CEO of UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs since January 2015. In that time, the Miller Center has strengthened its position as the leading nonpartisan research institution on the American presidency and worked with scholars across the University of Virginia to deliver vital research to policymakers and the public. Before coming to the Miller Center, Antholis served as managing director at the Brookings Institution from 2004 to 2014, working directly with Brookings’s president and vice presidents. He also served at the U.S. Department of State and National Security Council. Antholis is the author of two books and dozens of articles on U.S. politics, U.S. foreign policy, international organizations, the G8, climate change, and trade. He holds a BA from UVA and a PhD from Yale University.