Ariel Cohen

Ariel Cohen, L.L.B., Ph.D., is a Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Security at the Sarah and Douglas Allison Center at the Heritage Foundation. He works closely with Congressmen and Congressional staff members and cabinet-level and sub-cabinet domestic and foreign decision-makers. He is also a recognized authority in international security policy, including Europe, Eurasia, and the Middle East.

Dr. Cohen conducted White House briefings and lectured at the Central Intelligence Agency, the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and regularly participates in CIA/Department of State conferences. Dr. Cohen frequently testifies before committees of the U.S. Congress, including House Foreign Relations, House Armed Services, House Judiciary Committees and the Helsinki Commission. Dr. Cohen has directed high-level conferences on international security, including terrorism and energy, rule of law, crime and corruption, and a variety of other issues.

Dr. Cohen is involved in journalism since 1981, having published over 400 articles in professional and popular media. He appears on CNN, NBC, CBS, FOX, C-SPAN, BBC-TV, Al Jazeera, and all Russian and Ukrainian national TV networks. He was a commentator on a VOA Russian-language weekly radio and TV show for eight years, and also contributed commentary to the Radio Liberty Russian Service in the 1990s. He was a field interviewer and a research manager for Radio Liberty’s Media and Opinion Research from 1981-1992. He has extensively written as a guest columnist for the Washington Times, the Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Dr. Cohen serves as a contributor to EurasiaNet.org and Tech Central Station, and has written extensively for National Review Online andUPI.

Dr. Cohen also consulted for a number of Fortune 500 companies. He served as a Policy Advisor with the National Institute for Public Policy’s Center for Deterrence Analysis in a multi-country, multi-year study commissioned by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Dr. Cohen has also consulted for US AID, The World Bank, the Pentagon, the U.S. Senate, Radio Liberty-Radio Free Europe. He consulted extensively for the non-profit sector, designing interventions and conducting assessments and evaluations of business and non-profit projects in Russia, Georgia, and other countries of Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Dr. Cohen is a member of the Editorial Board of Central Asia and the Caucasus (Stockholm) and of Caspian Crossroads, and is on the Board of Advisors of Institute for Analysis of Global Security (IAGS). His book, Russian Imperialism: Development and Crisis, was published by Praeger Publishers/Greenwood in (1996 and 1998).  His new book is Eurasia in Balance (2005, Ashgate), of which he is Editor and co-author. His monograph, Kazakhstan-Russia Energy Relations: Oil, Gas and Beyond, was published in 2005 by BMG publishers (London). His chapter on War of Ideas has been published in James Carafano, ed., Winning the Long War (The Heritage Foundation, 2005). He is also a Member of the Council of Foreign Relations, International Institute for Strategic Studies (London), Association for Study of Nationalities and American Council on Germany.