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About the Expert
Expert Bio
Philip H. Gordon is the Mary and David Boies senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was special assistant to the president and White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region from 2013 to 2015. As the most senior White House official focused on the greater Middle East, he worked closely with the president, secretary of state, and national security advisor on issues including the Iranian nuclear program, Middle East peace negotiations, the conflict in Syria, security in Iraq, U.S. relations with the gulf states, the democratic transitions in North Africa, and bilateral relations with Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Lebanon. He chaired numerous interagency processes, regularly engaged foreign leaders, and directed a staff of some twenty directors and other national security specialists. Gordon is a senior advisor to the Albright Stonebridge Group (in the Europe and Middle East Practices).
From 2009 to 2013, Gordon served as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. As head of the department’s largest bureau, he managed a Washington, DC-based staff of nearly four hundred, an overseas staff of more than seven thousand, and oversaw a budget of over $1 billion. Gordon was responsible for fifty countries in Europe and Eurasia as well as for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Working closely with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his priorities for the region included cooperation with Europe on global issues; promoting U.S. commercial and business interests; extending stability, prosperity and democracy to eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Caucasus; and developing bilateral cooperation with Russia and with Turkey.
From 2000 to 2008 Gordon was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. In 2004 he became the founding director of the Center on the United States and Europe, which undertook research and ran programs focused on expanding global cooperation between the United States and its transatlantic partners. In 2006, Gordon became senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy at Brookings and focused his research on U.S. foreign policy, particularly toward Europe and the greater Middle East.
From 1998 to 1999 Gordon served as director for European affairs at the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton. He was responsible for NATO, the EU, the OSCE, France, Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus. From 1994 to 1998 he was a senior fellow and editor of the quarterly journal Survival at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He has also held research and teaching positions at INSEAD, the global graduate business school in Fontainebleau, France; the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik in Bonn, Germany; the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris, France; Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C.; and RAND, in Santa Monica, California. He has won a number of scholarships and prizes, including the Prix Littéraire France- États-Unis for his book Le Nouveau Défi Français (The French Challenge); a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship; a Bundeskanzler Scholarship; a German Marshall Fund Younger Scholars Award; a Bosch Fellowship; and a Fulbright scholarship.
Gordon received his PhD in international relations and international economics from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in 1991; he also has an MA from SAIS (1987) and a BA from Ohio University (1984). Gordon is the author of a number of books and monographs on international relations and foreign policy and has published numerous articles in journals and magazines such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, National Interest, American Interest, Survival, and International Security. He has been a regular contributor of opinion pieces to newspapers including the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Politico, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Le Monde. Gordon is proficient in French, Italian, and German, and has also studied Spanish, Arabic, and Hebrew.
Affiliations:
Albright Stonebridge Group, senior adviser
Gerson Lehrman Group, council member
National Security Action, advisory council member
Senior Adviser, Pete Buttigieg for President campaign
Current Projects
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Iran’s move to suspend cooperation with the 2015 nuclear deal threatens to further escalate already high tensions between Washington and Tehran.
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By announcing that Israeli settlements do not violate international law, the Trump administration continues a pattern of policy shifts that further weakens the prospects for Palestinian statehood.
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A U.S. military operation that eliminated Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is welcome but fails to allay worries about the security vacuum caused by the removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria.
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The president is in the difficult position of either backing down in the face of Iranian threats and suspected attacks or escalating the conflict in ways he clearly wants to avoid.
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The demise of the Iran nuclear deal does not make Tehran an immediate threat, but it opens the door to nuclear escalation.
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Neither Iran nor the United States likely wants war, but the possibility of a miscommunication is considerable, risking a dangerous escalation.
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Trump’s new approach to the Palestinians will do more harm than good. The United States cannot solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it can and should avoid making it worse.
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President Trump’s order to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria could have major implications for the country, the Middle East, and broader U.S. foreign policy.
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Saudi Arabia is no closer to achieving its objectives in Yemen, and international pressure to end the war is growing. The kingdom can cease its bombing campaign and still defend its national interests.
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NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
The totality of President Donald Trump’s statements and actions against NATO makes clear that the United States cannot be relied on to come to the defense of its European allies. -
In an interview with a Palestinian newspaper, the president’s son-in-law has revealed himself to be either strikingly naive or deeply cynical.