Ambassador Martin Indyk to Join CFR as Distinguished Fellow

September 13, 2018—Former diplomat and Middle East expert Martin Indyk will join the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) this month as a distinguished fellow and director of executive education, based in New York City.

“We are honored to welcome a practitioner and scholar of Martin’s caliber to the Council,” said CFR President Richard N. Haass. “Martin has been at the center of much of U.S. policy toward the Middle East for a quarter century and will add immensely to the depth and breadth of scholarship and activities here. We are also pleased that he will be spearheading our new initiative to provide tailored educational offerings to corporate members.”

Indyk comes to CFR from the Brookings Institution, where he was the John C. Whitehead Distinguished Fellow in International Diplomacy in the Foreign Policy program and served previously as executive vice president. Indyk served as the U.S. special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from July 2013 to June 2014. Previously, he was vice president and director of the Foreign Policy program and a senior fellow and the founding director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings.

“Martin’s contributions to the Brookings Institution are immeasurable, and he will forever remain a cherished member of the extended Brookings family,” said Brookings Institution President John R. Allen. “CFR would be hard-pressed to find a more talented individual to join its team, and we wish Martin our very best as he transitions to his new home in New York City.”

Indyk served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2000 to 2001. He also served as special assistant to President Bill Clinton and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council (1993–95) and as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in the U.S. Department of State (1997–2000).

Before entering government, Indyk was founding executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy for eight years. He serves on the boards of the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Australia, the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, and the Aspen Institute’s Middle East Investment Initiative. Indyk also serves as a member of the advisory boards of the Israel Democracy Institute and America Abroad Media.

A frequent commentator on U.S. foreign policy and Middle East issues, Indyk is the author of Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East (Simon and Schuster, 2009) and the coauthor with Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Lieberthal of Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy (Brookings Institution Press, 2012). He is currently completing a book tentatively titled “Henry Kissinger and the Art of the Middle East Deal,” to be published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2019.

Indyk received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Sydney and a doctorate in international relations from the Australian National University.

To request an interview with a CFR expert, please contact the Global Communications and Media Relations team at 212.434.9888 or [email protected].