Richard Norman Perle (born September 16, 1941) is an American neoconservative political advisor, foreign policy strategist, and lobbyist, known as the "Prince of Darkness" for his aggressive stance on national security and U.S. military policies, particularly in the Middle East. A prominent advocate of the U.S.–Israel alliance and assertive American interventions, he was a key architect of the Iraq War and has exemplified the interplay between government service, think-tank influence, and private-sector consulting in shaping U.S. foreign and defense policy.

Perle began his career in the 1970s as a senior staff member to Democratic Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson on the Senate Armed Services Committee, developing expertise in defense matters and arms control. From 1981 to 1987 he served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs under President Ronald Reagan, shaping policies on strategic defense initiatives and international security. He was chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 2001 to 2003 during the George W. Bush administration and had been a board member from 1987 until his resignation in 2004 amid allegations of conflicts of interest related to his private business ventures.

A founding member of the Project for the New American Century, Perle has been a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute since 1987, directing commissions on future defense strategies and authoring works on arms proliferation and regional conflicts. He led the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies study group that produced the influential 1996 report "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm." He remains a prominent commentator on global security through affiliations with think tanks such as the Hudson Institute and the Hoover Institution.