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 StaffDirector: Kenneth M. PollackSenior Fellows: Daniel L. Byman, Martin Indyk, Suzanne Maloney, Bruce RiedelFellow and Director, Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World: Stephen R. GrandFellow and Director, Brookings Doha Center: Hady Amr
Fellow and Deputy Director, Brookings Doha Center: Shadi Hamid
Nonresident Senior Fellows: Shibley TelhamiResearch Analysts: Aysha Chowdhry, Ariel Kastner, Irena SargsyanResearch Assistants: Chana Solomon-SchwartzAssistant Director, Administration and Budget: Yinnie TseAssistant Director for Development: Jacqulin Indek
Assistant Director of Programs: Reid CreedonProject Assistant, Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World: Christal Shrader
Staff Assistants: John Neureuther Affiliated Scholars: Michael E. O'Hanlon,
Research Director and Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Sidney Stein, Jr. ChairFormer 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, IndonesiaAmatzia Baram, professor of history, University of Haifa, IsraelNahum Barnea, senior political columnist, Yedioth Ahronoth, IsraelAvi Dicter, former head of Shin Bet, IsraelSameer Jarrah, chairman, Arab World Center for Democracy Development & Human Rights, JordanPeter 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 TradeYosef Kupperwasser, former Head, Research Department, Israeli Defense Force's Directorate of Military IntelligenceAbdel Monem Said Aly, director, al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, EgyptSever 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, IranKhalil Shikaki, director, Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, West BankRobin Wright, diplomatic correspondent, The Washington PostShlomo Yanai, president and CEO, Makhteshim-Agan Industries; former head of military planning, Israel Defense ForcesFormer Visiting Fellows, Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World: Najmeh Bozorgmehr, journalist, Financial Times, IranEzzat I.M. Ibrahim, journalist, Al-Ahram newspaper, EgyptMuqtedar Khan, assistant professor and director of international studies, Adrian CollegeÖmer Taspinar, Brookings research fellow and co-director, Brookings Project on Turkey Scholar Profiles
Kenneth M. Pollack
Director
Iraq, Iran, Gulf security, Arab military affairsDr. 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 Hady AmrFellow and Director, Brookings Doha Center
U.S. relations with the Islamic World, Arab-Israeli relations, Lebanon, Arab World economic developmentMr. Amr previously served as Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum on Islamic-Western Relations and as a Presidential Appointee, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, U.S. Department of Defense. He previously served as an economist and consultant at the World Bank and is the author of
The State of the Arab Child (UNICEF, 2002) and "The Need to Communicate: How to Improve U.S. Public Diplomacy with the Islamic World" (Brookings, 2004).
Daniel L. BymanSenior Fellow
Middle Eastern terrorism, U.S. counterterrorism strategy, conflict managementDr. 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 worldDr. 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 Deputy Director, Brookings Doha Center
Arab politics, democratization in the Middle East, Islamist movements, Egypt, Jordan
Mr. Hamid’s research focuses on Islamist political parties and democratic reform in the Middle East. Prior to joining Brookings, he was Director of Research at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and a Hewlett Fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. He currently serves as vice-chair of POMED’s board of directors. Hamid 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.
Martin S. IndykSenior Fellow
Arab-Israeli conflict, Gulf security, U.S. policyAmbassador 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 StatesDr. 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 RiedelSenior Fellow for Political Transitions in Middle East and South Asia
Counter-terrorism, Arab-Israeli issues, Persian Gulf Security, India and PakistanMr. 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.
Tamara Cofman WittesSenior Fellow
Arab political reform, democratization, Arab-Israeli conflict, conflict resolutionDr. Wittes served as Middle East specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace and director of programs at the Middle East Institute. Her work has addressed a wide range of topics, including the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, humanitarian intervention, and ethnic conflict. Her current research concerns U.S. policy toward democratization in the Arab world and the challenge of regional economic and political reform. She is the author of the forthcoming book "How Israelis and Palestinians Negotiate: A Cross Cultural Analysis of the Oslo Peace Process" (2005).
NONRESIDENT SENIOR FELLOW Shibley TelhamiNonresident Senior Fellow
Palestinian and Israeli politics, ethnic identity and conflict, Gulf and Arab politicsDr. Telhami is Anwar Sadat Professor at the University of Maryland and author of
The Stakes: America and the Middle East (2002). His many other publications on Middle East politics include Power and Leadership in International Bargaining: The Path to the Camp David Accords (1990). His current research focuses on the media's role in shaping Middle Eastern political identity and the sources of ideas about U.S. policy in the region.