In the fifteen years since President Bush declared the Global War on Terrorism, the path forward remains unclear. With ongoing issues in the region and the budding alliance between Russia and Iran, Middle East expert Ken Pollack discusses the complex challenges facing the new administration from the Iran Nuclear Deal to the importance of creating functioning societies with viable political, social, and economic systems.
“Unpredictability may be the hallmark of the Trump administration’s policy toward the Middle East.”
About Kenneth Pollack
Dr. Kenneth Pollack is a Senior Fellow for Middle East policy at the Brookings Institution and is an expert on the region’s political-military affairs. From 1995 to 1996, Pollack served on the National Security Council as Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs. From 1999 to 2001, he was the NSA’s Director for Persian Gulf Affairs. Pollack began his career as an Iran-Iraq military analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency in 1988 and was the principal author of the CIA’s classified post-mortem on Iraqi strategy and military operations during the first Persian Gulf War. He is the author of nine books on the Middle East, including the best-sellers The Threatening Storm and Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb and American Strategy, which was named one of The New York Times’ “Notable Books of 2013.” Pollack also serves an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown. He holds a BA from Yale and a PhD from MIT.