John B. Bellinger III

John Bellinger is the co-head of Arnold & Porter’s Global Law and Public Policy Practice.  He is also Adjunct Senior Fellow in International and National Security Law at the Council on Foreign Relations.  Mr. Bellinger served as the Senate-confirmed Legal Adviser for the U.S. Department of State under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from 2005 to 2009.  Mr. Bellinger represented the United States before the International Court of Justice in Mexico v. United States(Medellin) and the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal and negotiated a number of treaties and international agreements, including the Third Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions.  Mr. Bellinger served from 2001 to 2005 as Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council at the White House, where he was the principal lawyer for the National Security Adviser and the NSC staff.  He previously served as Counsel for National Security Matters in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, as Special Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as Special Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William Webster.  He is a member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on International Law, one of four members appointed by the United States to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, and a member of the U.S. “National Group,” which nominates judges to the International Court of Justice.  Mr. Bellinger is also Counselor for the preparation of the ALI Fourth Restatement of Foreign Relations Law.