Dov Zakheim
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Dov S. Zakheim is a former official of the United States government.
Zakheim earned his baccalaureate in government from Columbia University in 1970, and his doctorate in economics and politics at St. Antony's College, Oxford University. He has been an adjunct professor at the National War College, Yeshiva University, Columbia University and Trinity College (Connecticut), where he was presidential scholar.
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. As an orthodox Jew, he gained notoriety for his involvement in ending the Israeli fighter program, the 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.
During the 2000 U.S. 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.
From 1987-2001, 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 DoD panels, including its Task Force on Defense Reform (1997) and the DoD's first Board of Visitors of Overseas Regional Centers (1998-2001).
Zakheim is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the United States Naval Institute, and a member of the editorial board of the journal The National Interest. 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 was an Adjunct Scholar of the Heritage Foundation, a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and published over 200 articles and monographs on defense issues.
He was then appointed to be Undersecretary of Defense and Comptroller from 2001 to 2004 under the George W. Bush administration, and served in this capacity until April 2004. During his term Comptroller, he was tasked to help track down 2.6 trillion dollars ($2,600,000,000,000) unaccounted for by an audit of the previous Administration's Pentagon budget [1]. He initiated a number of processes that led to the reduction of that sum by two-thirds by the time of his departure, and to its reduction by over 99.9% within two years theareafter.
He is currently a Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton.
[edit] Publications
- Flight of the Lavi: Inside a U.S.-Israeli Crisis (Brassey's, 1996)
- Congress and National Security in the Post-Cold War Era (The Nixon Center, 1998)
- Toward a Fortress Europe? (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2000)
