Perturbation expansions of the effective electrical conductivity &sgr;eof any two‐phase isotropic composite medium of arbitrary dimensionalityd(whered=2,3) are derived. It is shown that certain Pade´ approximants of a particular series representation of &sgr;eyield known rigorous bounds on the conductivity of the composite. The relationships between the conductivities of certain models that are exactly realized by some of these bounds and the perturbation expansions are discussed. A new expression for the conductivity of a broad class of three‐dimensional dispersions of inclusions is derived. The formula for &sgr;e, which depends upon, among other quantities, a certain three‐point probability function of the composite medium, is shown to accurately predict &sgr;eof both periodic and random arrays of impenetrable spheres, for a wide range of phase conductivities and inclusion volume fractions.