Dr. Constantine C. Menges

Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute

Areas of Expertise

• U.S. foreign policy
• Russia, China, Europe, Latin America
• National security/intelligence issues
• U.S. president and foreign policy making
• Transitions to democracy
• Conflict resolution/peace building

Biographical Highlights:

Constantine C. Menges, a scholar, author, and university professor, joined Hudson Institute in 2000 as a senior fellow. His foreign policy experience includes public service as special assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and as national intelligence officer at the CIA.

His responsibilities in the government included the design of several major successful foreign policy strategies. For example, Menges devised strategies to counter Soviet indirect aggression and to encourage transitions to democracy abroad.

From 1990 to 2000, Dr. Menges was a professor at The George Washington University, where he directed the Program on Transitions to Democracy and began a project on U.S. relations with Russia and China and the new Russia-China alignment. He is continuing this work at Hudson.

His professional work also includes experience in domestic policy issues, having served as deputy assistant secretary for education and as assistant director for Civil Rights in the former federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Menges has traveled extensively in the former Soviet Union, Europe, and Latin America and has been a witness to history numerous times. In 1961, he helped individuals escape as the Berlin Wall was being built. In 1963, he worked in Mississippi as a volunteer for equal voting rights. Menges also helped the non-violent civic resistance following the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. He speaks French, German, Spanish, and Russian.

After receiving his B.A. degree from Columbia College, Menges earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in international relations, with emphasis on the Soviet Union and Germany.

Publications and Media Exposure

A frequent contributor to the national media, Menges has appeared on all the major networks. A prolific author, his articles have appeared in publications such as Commentary, National Review, The New Republic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

His books include Inside the National Security Council (1988); The Future of Germany and the Atlantic Alliance (1991); Transitions from Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe (1994); and Partnerships for Peace, Democracy and Prosperity (1997). He is currently completing a book titled The United States, Russia and China: Geopolitics in the New Century.