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News Release

Iraq Expert Ken Pollack Joins Brookings Saban Center as Research Director

October 16, 2002

Kenneth M. Pollack, an expert on Iraq and the Persian Gulf who formerly served at the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, has joined the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution as director of research. He also will be a senior fellow in the Brookings Foreign Policy Studies Program.

Pollack is the author of The Threatening Storm: The Case For Invading Iraq, which was just published by Random House. Earlier this year he wrote an article titled “Next Stop Baghdad?” in Foreign Affairs magazine.

The initial focus of Pollack’s work at the Saban Center will be on U.S. policy toward Iraq. “As director of research at the Saban Center, Ken Pollack will bring great strength to our core Middle East team at Brookings. His knowledge and experience on Iraq, the Gulf, and regional military affairs provides a timely and essential addition to our policy expertise,” said Martin S. Indyk, director of the Saban Center.

Pollack was an Iran-Iraq military analyst with the CIA from 1988-1995. He was director for Persian Gulf Affairs on the NSC from 1999-2001, and director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the NSC from 1995-1996. Additionally, he has been senior research professor at the National Defense University and director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

In addition to his current book on a possible United States invasion of Iraq, Pollack wrote Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991 (University of Nebraska Press, 2002).

About Brookings

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. Our mission is to conduct in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels.