FDD Launches Center on Economic and Financial Power, Names Former Treasury Advisor Eric B. Lorber as Senior Director

(Washington, D.C., January 9, 2019) – The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) today unveiled its Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP), a program within the nonpartisan research institute building on the expertise formerly housed under FDD’s Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF). CEFP will replace and expand the CSIF program and will focus on how economic and financial power can be leveraged to achieve national security objectives.

Experts at CEFP will track and analyze changes in the international financial, economic, and technology spaces and how allies and rivals are adapting to these developments, in addition to promoting a greater understanding of U.S. economic authorities and how they can best be used to counter adversaries.

“At present, America and its allies are ill-prepared to address the increasingly sophisticated use of economic warfare by our opponents,” FDD CEO Mark Dubowitz said in announcing the center. “There is an urgent need to provide cutting edge research and innovative policy ideas to public officials, the private sector, and the general public on how U.S. adversaries use economic warfare, and the proper use of economic and financial power to protect American security.”

As a core part of its research agenda, CEFP will promote a greater understanding of how to sharpen the economic authorities with which the United States and its partners isolate malign regimes and individuals from the global financial system while strengthening the system’s integrity, since it is a primary source of U.S. economic power.

“CEFP’s mission and work will prove critical as the international community contends with the challenges, strategies, and doctrines of economic statecraft and warfare, which includes the novel use of financial, economic, and technological tools in aid of national security,” said former deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor Juan C. Zarate, chairman and co-founder of the center. “CEFP will explore how financial and economic power, to include the role of the private sector, market forces, and technology, should be wielded smartly by the United States and will evolve over time in the face of challenges and even conflict.”

FDD also announced that Eric B. Lorber, former senior advisor to the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence will serve as senior director of the new center.

Lorber formerly served as a senior advisor for CSIF and is recognized as one of the leading experts in the field of sanctions, financial power, and national security. He also serves as a director at the Financial Integrity Network (FIN), where he advises financial clients on issues related to economic sanctions, anti-money laundering, and regulatory compliance.

His articles and commentary on sanctions and related issues have appeared widely in the press and academic journals such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs. He has testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Banking Committee, and the House Financial Services Committee on sanctions-related issues.

Lorber graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he received the Noyes E. Leech Award for highest achievement in international law.  He graduated from Columbia University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, magna cum laude and with departmental honors, and was awarded the Charles Beard Prize for academic achievement.

Dubowitz, co-founder of CEFP, commented that “Eric brings to CEFP strong government and private sector experience and a body of impressive scholarship. We are delighted to have him join our growing team of leading scholars and practitioners.”

“I’m pleased to be joining the go-to-place for policy analysis and real-world action on the use of economic and financial power to advance national security objectives,” Lorber said. “I look forward to working closely with the experts at FDD’s CEFP, who have played an important role in shaping our ability to effectively use economic and financial tools to achieve foreign policy goals.”

About FDD

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a Washington, DC-based non-partisan policy institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Visit our website at fdd.org and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

About CEFP

The Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) studies national economic security, with a focus on how the U.S. can leverage its economic and financial power to achieve its national security objectives.