Dov S. Zakheim

{{Short description|United States Department of Defense official}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Dov S. Zakheim

| image = Former Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Dov S. Zakheim (010509-A-3569D-001).jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Zakheim in 2001

| office = 3rd Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/CFO

| term_start = May 3, 2001

| term_end = July 15, 2004

| president = George W. Bush

| predecessor = William J. Lynn

| successor = Tina W. Jonas

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1948|12|18}}

| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| death_cause =

| residence =

| other_names =

| known_for =

| education = Columbia University (BA)
St Antony's College, Oxford (PhD)

| spouse =

| children =

}}

Dov S. Zakheim (born December 18, 1948) is an American businessman, writer, and former official of the United States government. In the Reagan administration, he held various Department of Defense positions. In 2000, Zakheim was a member of The Vulcans, a group of foreign policy advisors assisting George W. Bush's presidential campaign. From 2001 to 2004, he was Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer{{Cite web |last=Zakheim |first=Dov |title=Confessions of a Vulcan |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/05/13/confessions-of-a-vulcan-2/ |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=Foreign Policy |date=May 13, 2011 |language=en-US}} of the Department of Defense.

Early life and education

Zakheim was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Yeshiva University High School in Brooklyn, in 1966. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree Summa Cum Laude in government from Columbia University in 1970 and D.Phil. in economics and politics from the University of Oxford in 1974.{{cite book |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-107shrg75903/pdf/CHRG-107shrg75903.pdf |title=Nominations Before the Senate Armed Services Committee, First Session, 107th Congress |chapter=Biographical and Financial Information Requested of Nominees |date=2002 |page=348 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=May 13, 2021}} He is Jewish.{{Cite web|url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.5036858|title=What's Wrong With This Picture?|date=August 7, 2002|website=Haaretz.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/us/strains-grow-between-israel-and-many-jews-in-the-us.html|title=Strains Grow Between Israel and Many Jews in the U.S.|first=Samuel G.|last=Freedman|date=February 6, 2015|website=The New York Times}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-jews-will-abandon-israel-over-religious-exclusion-warns-delegation/|title=US Jews will abandon Israel over religious exclusion, warns delegation|website=Timesofisrael.com}} He is an ordained rabbi, having received his ordination from Rabbi Shmuel Walkin.{{cite web | url=https://korenpub.com/collections/dov-s-zakheim | title=Dov S. Zakheim }}

Career

File:Defense.gov News Photo 030203-D-2987S-037.jpg

Zakheim joined the United States Department of Defense in 1981 after serving as a principal analyst in the Congressional Budget Office. He served in various Department of Defense posts during the Reagan administration, including Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Planning and Resources from 1985 to 1987. There was some controversy in both the U.S. and Israel over Zakheim's involvement in ending the Israeli fighter program, the IAI Lavi. He argued that Israeli and U.S. interests would be best served by having Israel purchase F-16 fighters, rather than investing in an entirely new aircraft. He left government service in 1987 and joined the technology and analysis firm System Planning Corporation as its corporate vice president.

From 1987 to 2001, Zakheim was CEO of SPC International, a subsidiary of System Planning Corporation, a high-technology analytical firm. During that period, he served as a consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and sat on a number of major Department of Defense panels, including its Task Force on Defense Reform (1997) and the Department of Defense first Board of Visitors of Overseas Regional Centers (1998–2001).

Zakheim was an adjunct professor at the National War College, Yeshiva University, Columbia University, and Trinity College, where he was presidential scholar. Zakheim was an adjunct scholar of The Heritage Foundation, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and has published over 200 articles and monographs on defense-related issues.

Zakheim signed a letter to Bill Clinton about Iraq.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xCvQQ2ZCUIcC&q=%22Zakheim%22,+%22PNAC+%22&pg=PA14|title=The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril|first=Eugene|last=Jarecki|date=October 14, 2008|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=14|isbn=9781416544562|via=Google Books}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qkhWBQAAQBAJ&q=%22stephen+cambone%22,+%22PNAC%22&pg=PA37|title=US Foreign Policy and China: Bush's First Term|first=Guy|last=Roberts|date=November 13, 2014|publisher=Routledge|page=37|isbn=9781317649939|via=Google Books}}{{cite web|url=http://newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf|title=PNAC, Rebuilding America's Defenses, 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808162833/http://newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf|access-date=July 28, 2019|url-status=usurped|archive-date=August 8, 2007}}

> During the 2000 United States presidential election campaign, Zakheim served as a foreign policy advisor to George W. Bush as part of a group led by Condoleezza Rice that called itself The Vulcans.

=Bush Administration=

Zakheim was then appointed as Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) from 2001 in George W. Bush administration, and served in the capacity until July 2004.{{Cite web|date=2021-05-21|title=Senators threaten to cut the Pentagon's allowance if it can't pass an audit next year|url=https://taskandpurpose.com/news/senators-dod-pentagon-pass-audit/|access-date=2021-08-10|website=Task & Purpose|language=en-US}} During his term as comptroller, he was tasked to trace the Pentagon's 2.3 trillion dollars' worth of unaccounted transactions.{{cite news |author=Gerry J. Gilmore |title=Zakheim Seeks To Corral, Reconcile 'Lost' Spending |url=http://archive.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=43927 |date=February 20, 2002 |publisher=US Department of Defense |access-date=January 4, 2016 |archive-date=February 16, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216211239/http://archive.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=43927 |url-status=dead }} He also played an active role in the department's system acquisition, strategic planning, programming, and budget process.{{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Security Challenges Arising from the Global Financial Crisis: Hearing Before the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, First Session, Hearing Held March 11, 2009|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|year=2010|isbn=978-0-16-086270-0|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=65|language=en}} He was succeeded by Tina W. Jonas as the top budget official at the DoD.{{cite book |last=Zakheim |first=Dov S. |title=A Vulcan's Tale: How the Bush Administration Mismanaged the Reconstruction of Afghanistan |date=2011 |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |isbn=978-0-8157-2126-0 |publication-place=Washington, D.C. |oclc=731207950}}

In 2008, he was appointed by President Bush as a member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. He subsequently served as a Commissioner on the Congressionally-mandated Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission. He currently is a Commissioner on the Congressionally-mandated National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, appointed by Senator Jack Reed.{{Cite web |date=2022-03-17 |title=Armed Services Committees Leadership Announces Selections for National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology |url=https://democrats-armedservices.house.gov/2022/3/armed-services-committees-leadership-announces-selections-for-national-security-commission-on-emerging-biotechnology |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=House Armed Services Committee - Democrats |language=en}}

Zakheim retired as a senior vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton in 2010. He is a senior fellow at the CNA Corporation and a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

Zakheim is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the United States Naval Institute, and Chatham House. He is a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences.

Zakheim is a member of the editorial boards of the journal The National Interest and Naval War College Press. He is vice chairman of the board of trustees of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a trustee of the American University of Iraq, and a member of the Atlantic Council's board of directors,.{{Cite web|title=Board of Directors|url=https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/about/board-of-directors/|access-date=February 12, 2020|website=Atlantic Council|language=en-US}} on the Board of the Friends of the Jewish Chapel of the United States Naval Academy and on the Board of Control of the Naval Academy Athletic Association. He publishes a regular column in The Hill.

He is a three-time recipient of the Department of Defense's highest civilian award, the Distinguished Public Service Medal, as well as other awards for government and community service. He is also co-vice chair of Global Panel America with Malcolm Rifkind.

His 2011 book, A Vulcan’s Tale: How the Bush Administration Mismanaged the Reconstruction of Afghanistan, discusses the Bush administration's missed opportunities and struggles to manage two wars, particularly the seemingly endless conflict in Afghanistan.

In the 2020 presidential election, Zakheim, along with over 130 other former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted that President Donald Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "To that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him."{{cite web |url=https://www.defendingdemocracytogether.org/national-security/ |title=Former Republican National Security Officials for Biden |date=20 August 2020 |website=Defending Democracy Together |access-date=26 August 2021}}

Bibliography

= Books =

{{cite book | last=Zakheim | first=Dov S. | title=Flight of the Lavi : inside a U.S.-Israeli crisis | publisher=Brassey's | publication-place=Washington | date=1996 | isbn=1-57488-065-9 | oclc=34077761}}
Congress and National Security in the Post-Cold War Era (Nixon Center, 1998)
Toward a Fortress Europe? (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2000)
A Vulcan's Tale (Brookings Institution Press, 2011)
Nehemiah: Statesman and Sage (Koren Publishers, 2016){{Cite web|title=Nehemiah|url=https://korenpub.com/products/nehemiahhardcover|access-date=2021-06-17|website=Koren Publishers|language=en}}

References

External links

[http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/blog/2200 Zakheim's current blog at ForeignPolicy.com]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090115111959/http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/contributors#zakheim Zakheim's bio at ForeignPolicy.com]
{{C-SPAN|19810}}
[https://www.cfr.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/FY17%20Membership%20Roster.pdf Membership] at the Council on Foreign Relations

Category:1948 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American economists

Category:Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford

Category:American chief executives of manufacturing companies

Category:American Orthodox Jews

Category:American technology chief executives

Category:Booz Allen Hamilton people

Category:Atlantic Council

Category:Businesspeople from Brooklyn

Category:Businesspeople in electronics

Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni