Michael Fenzel

Blue Senior Research Fellow

Research Scholar

Office location

Horchow Hall

55 Hillhouse Avenue

About

Lieutenant General (Retired) Michael R. Fenzel is a senior national security leader with more than three decades of experience operating at the highest levels of military command, U.S. government policymaking, and international security cooperation. He is currently a managing director at Turner Construction Company.

Fenzel retired from the U.S. Army following service as the United States Security Coordinator (USSC) for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. In that role, he was the senior U.S. security interlocutor between Israeli and Palestinian security leadership, led a multinational security coalition based in Jerusalem, coordinated efforts to stabilize the West Bank, and directed the security line of effort for post-conflict Gaza planning through direct engagement with regional and international stakeholders. Across a distinguished career, Mike Fenzel served in complex and high-risk environments spanning Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, civil war in Liberia, enforcing peace in Bosnia, and multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, including a parachute assault into Northern Iraq in 2003. He commanded units ranging from a battalion of 800 Paratroopers to an airborne brigade task force of 6,800 Soldiers which served as the U.S. military’s Global Response Force.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Johns Hopkins University, master’s degrees from the Naval War College and Harvard University, and a PhD from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. He currently serves as a Trustee on the Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees.

More about Michael Fenzel

Full Biography

Michael R. Fenzel is a senior national security leader with more than three decades of experience operating at the highest levels of military command, U.S. government policymaking, and international security cooperation. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, he was commissioned as an Army officer from Johns Hopkins University in 1989 and retired as a Lieutenant General following service as the United States Security Coordinator (USSC) for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Across a distinguished career, Mike Fenzel served in complex and high-risk environments spanning Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, civil war in Liberia, enforcing peace in Bosnia, and multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, including a parachute assault into Northern Iraq in 2003. He commanded units ranging from a battalion of 800 Paratroopers to an airborne brigade task force of 6,800 Soldiers which served as the U.S. military’s Global Response Force.

At the strategic level, he served as a strategist to the Army Chief of Staff before joining the White House staff at the National Security Council, where he held roles as Director for Transnational Threats and Director for Combating Terrorism, serving through the attacks of September 11, 2001. His subsequent senior leadership roles included Deputy Director of Military Operations for U.S. Forces–Afghanistan, Deputy Commander for Regional Command–East overseeing eight Provincial Reconstruction Teams, and Director of Strategic Planning (J5) for NATO’s mission in Afghanistan. He served as military deputy to the Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation and through two years of active negotiations with the Taliban. His final Pentagon assignment was as Vice Director for Strategy, Plans, and Policy (J5) on the U.S. Joint Staff. He was Chairman of the Council for Emerging National Security Affairs (CENSA) for 17 years, a nonprofit organization focused on emerging global security challenges. During this period, he also taught a graduate-level course on counterterrorism at Georgetown University. Most recently, as USSC, he served as the senior U.S. security interlocutor between Israeli and Palestinian security leadership, led a multinational security coalition based in Jerusalem, coordinated efforts to stabilize the West Bank, and directed the security line of effort for post-conflict Gaza planning through direct engagement with regional and international stakeholders. He also represented the United States as the senior military official at senior diplomatic summits in Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh (2023).

Mike Fenzel currently serves as a Trustee on the Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees, his alma mater. His awards include the Woodrow Wilson Award for a Lifetime of Distinguished Public Service, the Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award, the Bronze Star for Valor, three additional Bronze Stars for combat service, the Army Commendation Medal for Valor, and the Presidential Service Badge. He was both a White House Fellow and Asia Society Fellow, and served as a Term Member, Senior Military Fellow, and Life Member at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of No Miracles: The Failure of Soviet Decision-Making in the Afghan War (Stanford University Press, 2017). He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Johns Hopkins University, master’s degrees from the Naval War College and Harvard University, and a PhD from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.