[Concerning potential evacuations in the Middle East] With 600,000 Americans in Israel and threats to other Americans across the region, it’s hard to think of an evacuation that might compare to this in scale, scope and complexity. The sort of advisories the State Department has put out lately have been fairly blunt.
Suzanne Maloney is the vice president and director of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, where her research focuses on Iran and Persian Gulf energy. Prior to being named vice president and director, she served as the deputy director of Foreign Policy for five years. At Brookings, she is a leading voice on U.S. policy toward Iran and the broader Middle East, testifying before Congress, briefing policymakers, and engaging with government, non-profit organizations and corporations. She is a frequent commentator in national and international media.
Maloney has advised both Democratic and Republican administrations on Iran policy, including as an external advisor to senior State Department officials during the Obama administration and as a member of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s Policy Planning staff. Earlier in her career, she served as Middle East advisor for ExxonMobil Corporation, where she was responsible for government relations related to all corporate activities in the region.
She has authored or edited three books on Iran: “The Iranian Revolution at 40” (Brookings Institution Press, 2020); “Iran’s Political Economy since the Revolution” (Cambridge University Press, 2015); and “Iran’s Long Reach” (United States Institute of Peace, 2008). Maloney has also published numerous book chapters and articles in a variety of academic and policy journals as well as news media such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs. In 2004, she directed and authored the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on US policy toward Iran, chaired by former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
Maloney received a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and studied in Tehran as part of the first academic exchanges between the United States and Iran since the 1979 revolution.
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Areas of Expertise
- Iran and Gulf States
- Energy
- Economic reform
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Past Positions
- Policy Planning Staff Member, U.S. Department of State (2005-2007)
- Project Director, Task Force on U.S.-Iran Relations, Council on Foreign Relations (2003-2004)
- Middle East Advisor, ExxonMobil Corporation (2001-2004)
- Olin Fellow, The Brookings Institution (2000-2001)
- Brookings Research Fellow, The Brookings Institution (1998-1999)
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Education
- Ph.D., The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 2000
- B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1990
Mentions and Appearances
[The al-Ahli Hospital blast in Gaza has] derailed a much-needed opportunity to make meaningful progress on the near-term solution to the Gaza crisis. And by inflaming opinion across the Arab world, it has heightened prospects for escalation and a much more dangerous and protracted conflict in the region.
It is quite well known that the Iranian government is the primary backer, both financial and in terms of military equipment, of Hamas and a number of other Palestinian militant groups.
The upshot is an environment in which the leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies have to engage with an ever more challenging world, even as they’re on shaky ground at home. This can fuel doubts among our allies and overconfidence among our adversaries, and leave us all more vulnerable as a result.
Every conversation I’ve had about Ukraine over the course of the year has at some point moved to Taiwan.
There are many Iranians who clearly felt embittered towards the national team for some of the signs of allegiance to the system, which are, of course, impossible to avoid for players on a team such as this… [The national team] met with the president before their departure for Doha. And those photos created some backlash… For any Iranian, the estrangement with Washington has essentially shaped their future…There’s a particular sense, I imagine a bitterness, associated with a loss.
The critics of the [Iranian nuclear] deal, both then and now, have not provided a better mechanism other than continued sanctions, and that simply hasn’t done the trick.
I would not hold the Iranian presidential election as a serious reason for urgency on our side…The Biden administration should resist the temptation to be drawn into crisis diplomacy with the Iranians.
There needs to be negotiations around the [Iranian] nuclear issue. But that doesn’t mean subordinating the other sets of concerns, particularly the lives of Americans who are held in Iranian prisons.
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