Flynt Leverett and Peter W. Singer Named Senior Fellows

Flynt Leverett and Peter W. Singer have been named senior fellows at the Brookings Institution, James B. Steinberg, vice president and director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program, announced today.

Leverett has been a visiting fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. His first book, Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial by Fire, will be published this spring by the Brookings Institution Press.

“Flynt combines an outstanding record of public service in the national security community with scholarly skills and regional expertise in a way that fills a unique niche at Brookings,” Steinberg said in announcing the appointments. “His recently completed book is one of the most significant pieces on Syria that I have encountered and it will make a major contribution to scholarship on the region. Brookings is very fortunate to have him as a scholar.”

Singer has been a national security fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program and director of the Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World.

Steinberg said of him, “In addition to producing stellar, award-winning scholarship, including two critically acclaimed books, Peter has played a key role in helping Brookings fashion imaginative, effective strategies for enhancing America’s relationship with Muslim states and communities through his leadership on the Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World.”

Singer’s other areas of expertise include new security threats, sources of terrorism, defense policy, and child soldiers. He has published numerous papers on these topics. He is the author of two books, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry (Cornell University Press, 2003), and Children at War (Pantheon, 2005).

Singer organized the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar, in 2004, bringing together American and Muslim world leaders in one of the largest conferences in Brookings history.

Prior to joining Brookings in 2001, he was a doctoral fellow at the Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, an action officer on the Balkan Task Force in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and conducted research in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia as a special assistant with the International Peace Academy.

Singer received his doctorate from Harvard’s Government Department, and his undergraduate degree at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Leverett joined Brookings after a distinguished career in government service. His work focuses on the so-called Arab front-line states (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria), Saudi Arabia, American policy toward “rogue” states, including Iran, and intelligence issues. His comments on Middle East issues are frequently sought by American and international news media.

From February 2002 to March 2003 he served at the White House as senior director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council. Previously he served on the secretary of state’s Policy Planning Staff, and for eight years was a senior analyst of Middle East and South Asia affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency.

He earned his undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University.