In May 2002, the Saban Center for Middle East Policy was launched with a special address by His Majesty King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to a select audience of policymakers in Washington, D.C. With the addition of the Saban Center, the Brookings Institution has rapidly become one of the most dynamic centers for research and analysis of U.S. policy in the Middle East. It was founded with the help of prominent Los Angeles businessman Haim Saban, who made a generous initial grant and pledged additional funds to endow the Center.

"As someone who has an abiding interest in promoting Arab-Israeli peace and preserving American interests in the Middle East, I am delighted to have an opportunity to help expand the work of the Brookings Institution in these areas," Mr. Saban said. "The Brookings Institution's credibility and reputation for rigorous, policy-relevant scholarship makes it the ideal institution to house this vital work."

Under the leadership of director Kenneth M. Pollack, the Saban Center fosters research and discussion on some of the most crucial problems facing the United States today. The Saban Center draws on a diverse staff with expertise in such issues as regime change and nation building in Iraq, Palestinian-Israeli peace, and U.S. Relations with the Islamic World. As an integral part of the Foreign Policy Studies program, the Center provides a forum for all Brookings scholars engaged in Middle East-related research.

Saban Center Experts and Staff

Director: Kenneth M. Pollack
Director of Research: Daniel L. Byman
Senior Fellows: Michael Doran, Martin Indyk, Suzanne Maloney, Bruce Riedel, Natan Sachs
Fellow and Director, Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World: Stephen R. Grand
Fellow and Director, Brookings Doha Center: Salman Shaikh
Fellow and Deputy Director, Brookings Doha Center: Ibrahim Sharqieh
Fellow and Director of Research, Brookings Doha Center: Shadi Hamid
Nonresident Senior Fellow: Shibley Telhami
Visiting Fellow: Khaled Elgindy
Deputy Director, Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World: Durriya Badani
Assistant Director of Publications: Ariel Kastner
Research Analyst: Irena Sargsyan
Senior Research Assistant & Publications Coordinator, Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World: Akram al-Turk
Research Assistants: Carmiel Arbit, Zachary Gold

Center Manager: Christal Shrader
Programs Manager: Marshall Lilly
Senior Financial Manager: Rangano Makamure
Development Officer: Sadie Jonath
Staff Assistants, Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World: Julie Song, Rebecca White

Affiliated Scholars:
Michael E. O'Hanlon, Research Director and Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Sidney Stein, Jr. Chair

Former Visiting Fellows:
M.J. Akbar, founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Asian Age, India
Khalil Al-anani, Deputy Editor of Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya Journal, published in Cairo, Egypt
M. Syafi’i Anwar, Executive Director of the International Center for Islam and Pluralism, Indonesia
Amatzia Baram, professor of history, University of Haifa, Israel
Nahum Barnea, senior political columnist, Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel
Avi Dicter, former head of Shin Bet, Israel
Sameer Jarrah, chairman, Arab World Center for Democracy Development & Human Rights, Jordan
Peter Khalil, former Director of National Security Policy for the Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraq and Asst. Director of Iraq Policy in the Iraq Task Force at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Yosef Kupperwasser, former Head, Research Department, Israeli Defense Force's Directorate of Military Intelligence
Abdel Monem Said Aly, director, al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Egypt
Sever Plocker, journalist and chief economics editor, Yedioth Aharonoth, Israel
Itamar Rabinovich, Ettinger Chair of Contemporary Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University
Hadi Semati, professor of law and political science, University of Tehran, Iran
Khalil Shikaki, director, Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, West Bank
Robin Wright, diplomatic correspondent, The Washington Post
Shlomo Yanai, president and CEO, Makhteshim-Agan Industries; former head of military planning, Israel Defense Forces

Former Visiting Fellows, Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World:
Najmeh Bozorgmehr, journalist, Financial Times, Iran
Ezzat I.M. Ibrahim, journalist, Al-Ahram newspaper, Egypt
Muqtedar Khan, assistant professor and director of international studies, Adrian College
Ömer Taspinar, Brookings research fellow and co-director, Brookings Project on Turkey 

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Kenneth M. Pollack
Director
Iraq, Iran, Gulf security, Arab military affairs
Dr. Pollack served as a CIA analyst and as the National Security Council's director for Persian Gulf affairs and for Near East and South Asian affairs. His new book, The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict between Iran and America (November 2004), examines the troubled history of U.S.-Iranian relations and offers a new strategy for U.S. policy towards Iran. He is also the author of The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq and Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991 (both 2002).

RESEARCH FELLOWS

Daniel L. Byman
Senior Fellow
Middle Eastern terrorism, U.S. counterterrorism strategy, conflict management
Dr. Byman is Director of the Center for Peace and Security Studies and an associate professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has held positions with the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States (the "9/11 Commission"), the Joint 9/11 Inquiry and Senate Intelligence Committees, the RAND Corporation, and the U.S. government. He writes widely on issues related to U.S. national security, terrorism, and the Middle East. His latest book is Deadly Connections: State Sponsorship of Terrorism.

Stephen R. Grand
Fellow and Director, Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World
U.S. relations with the Islamic world
Dr. Grand was formerly the Director of the Middle East Strategy Group at the Aspen Institute and has served as a Scholar in Residence at American University and an adjunct professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. In 2002-2003, he was an International Affairs Fellows at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to that, Grand served as Director of Programs at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). He has also worked as a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as the founding Executive Director of the Civic Education Project, an international educational organization that assists with the reform of university-level social science teaching abroad. He holds a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University.

Shadi Hamid
Fellow and Director of Research, Brookings Doha Center
Arab politics, democratization in the Middle East, Islamist movements, Egypt, Jordan
Dr. Hamid's research focuses on democratization and the role of Islamist movements in the Arab world. Prior to joining Brookings, Hamid was director of research at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and a Hewlett fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development & the Rule of Law. He has conducted extensive research on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Jordan, most recently as a resident fellow at the American Center for Oriental Research in Amman. He has also served as a program specialist on public diplomacy at the U.S. State Department and a Legislative Fellow at the Office of Senator Dianne Feinstein. Hamid received his B.S. and M.A. from Georgetown University and his Ph.D. in political science from Oxford University.

Martin S. Indyk
Senior Fellow
Arab-Israeli conflict, Gulf security, U.S. policy
Ambassador Indyk served in several senior positions in the U.S. government, most recently as ambassador to Israel and assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs. He was also a founding executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He has published widely on Palestinian-Israeli peace and other topics in Middle East policy.

Suzanne Maloney
Senior Fellow
Economic Reform, Energy, Iran and Gulf States
Dr. Maloney's expertise focuses on energy, economic reform and U.S. policy toward the Middle East. Most recently, she worked on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff where she provided policy analysis and recommendations on Iran, Iraq, the Gulf States and broader Middle East issues. Prior to joining the government, she was the Middle East Advisor at ExxonMobil Corporation and served as Project Director of the Task Force on US-Iran Relations at the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Maloney is the author of a forthcoming book "Pivotal States in the Muslim World: Iran." She holds a Ph.D. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Bruce Riedel
Senior Fellow for Political Transitions in Middle East and South Asia
Counter-terrorism, Arab-Israeli issues, Persian Gulf Security, India and Pakistan
Mr. Riedel is an analyst of Middle East and South Asia history and politics with extensive experience in regional diplomacy, conflict management, counter terrorism and energy security. He retired in 2006 after 30 years service at the Central Intelligence Agency including postings overseas in the Middle East and Europe. He was a senior advisor on the region to the last three Presidents of the United States in the staff of the National Security Council at the White House. He was also Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Near East and South Asia at the Pentagon and a senior advisor at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels. Mr. Riedel was a member of President Clinton's peace team at the Camp David, Wye River, and Shepherdstown summits. He is a graduate of Brown and Harvard Universities and the Royal College of Defense Studies in London.

Salman Shaikh
Fellow and Director, Brookings Doha Center
Middle East, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Gaza Crisis, Middle East Unrest
Salman Shaikh is director of the Brookings Doha Center and fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. His expertise lies in United Nations diplomatic and conflict management efforts. Shaikh previously served as director for policy and research at the Office of H.H. Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned. Before that, his U.N. career included working for the special advisor to the U.N. Secretary General on the Middle East (Michael Williams); for the personal representative of the U.N. Secretary General for Lebanon (Geir Pedersen); and for the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (Terje Rod-Larsen). He also held the position of special representative to the Muslim West Facts Project. Shaikh earned a B.A. from Loughborough University and a master’s from Kent at Canterbury University.


NONRESIDENT SENIOR FELLOW

Shibley Telhami
Nonresident Senior Fellow
Shibley Telhami, a nonresident senior fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, is a former advisor to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and the Iraq Study Group. He is an expert on U.S. policy in the Middle East, particularly on the role of the news media in shaping political identity and public opinion in the region.