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Expert Bio
Martin S. Indyk is a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Previously, he was the executive vice president of the Brookings Institution. Indyk served as President Barack Obama's special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from July 2013 to June 2014. Before his time as special envoy, he was vice president and director of the Foreign Policy program and the founding director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings.
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, the Israel Policy Forum, and chairs 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.
Indyk is the author of Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy (A.A. Knopf, 2021) and Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East" (Simon and Schuster, 2009) and the co-author of Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy with Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Lieberthal (Brookings Institution Press, 2012).
Indyk received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Sydney and a doctorate in international relations from the Australian National University.
Affiliations:
- America Abroad Media, advisory board
- Aspen Institute Middle East Investment Initiative, chairman
- Credit Suisse Asset Management, senior advisor
- Institute for National Security Studies (Israel), board director
- Israel Democracy Institute, advisory board
- Israel Policy Forum, board director and convener, advisory council
- Lowy Institute for International Policy (Australia), board director
- MeiraGTx, board director
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Martin Indyk discusses his new book, Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy. A perceptive and provocative history of Henry Kissinger’s diplomatic negotiations in the Middle East that illuminates the unique challenges and barriers Kissinger and his successors have faced in their attempts to broker peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors and how Kissinger overcame them to lay the foundations for an American-led Middle Eastern order. The CFR Fellows’ Book Launch series highlights new books by CFR fellows.
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Panelists discuss the Biden administration's response to the crisis in Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank, including next steps beyond the ceasefire.
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Panelists discuss how the Biden administration will approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and if the Abraham Accords can help to resolve it. The Transition 2021 series examines the major foreign policy issues confronting the Biden administration.
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, only two years after he shook hands with Yasser Arafat on the White House South Lawn following the signing of the Oslo Accords. Panelists discuss his legacy, achievements, and the ramifications of his assassination on the Middle East peace process twenty-five years later. The Lessons From History Series uses historical analysis as a critical tool for understanding modern foreign policy challenges by hearing from practitioners who played an important role in a consequential historical event or from experts and historians. This series is made possible through the generous support of David M. Rubenstein.
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Please join our panelists for a discussion of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s proposed annexation of parts of the West Bank and the geopolitical consequences for the region and for the Middle East peace plan.
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Panelists discuss The Human Factor and the history of the Middle East peace process. This documentary examines the decades-long pursuit of peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict chronicled by the American diplomats and negotiators working behind the scenes.
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The symposium held on December 2, 2019 analyzed the consequences of U.S. retrenchment for the future of Israel and the Middle East. For more than four decades, the United States has played a large part in the Middle East regional order. However, it is now pulling back from the region in a manner that has generated uncertainty and insecurity for America’s allies and partners. The event convened experts to discuss whether Israel is in a particularly exposed position given its traditional dependence on the United States. The event was cosponsored with Israel's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).
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Panelists discuss the HBO documentary film The Oslo Diaries as well as the years of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the legacy of the agreements, and the future of the peace process.
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Experts discuss the legacy of the 1967 Six Day War, its influence on U.S. policy in the Middle East for the last fifty years, and the prospects of negotiating a lasting Arab-Israeli peace deal.
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Experts evaluate U.S. policy options in approaching the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
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Join us for an in-depth discussion with Israel's Ambassador to the United States Sallai Meridor about recent developments in the Middle East--including Iran's continued pursuit of nuclear capabilities, the latest outbreak of violence in Lebanon, and suggestions to relaunch the Arab Peace Initiative--as well as their implications for Israel's relations within the region and what they mean for the United States.