Kenneth Pollack is one of America’s most renowned and influential experts on the Middle East and security affairs in the Persian Gulf and Iran. He has authored several major books and articles published on US foreign policy in recent years: He is the author of The Persian Puzzle: the Conflict between Iran and America (2004); The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq (2002); and Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991 (2002). Pollack has written for, among other publications, the New Republic, Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, and Washington Quarterly.

Before his nomination as Director of Research at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Pollack was Director for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (2001-2002) and held a number of positions in the National Security Council, including from 1999 to 2001 as director for Persian Gulf affairs, and from 1995-1996 as director for Near East and South Asian affairs. Pollack worked as senior research professor at the National Defense University (1998-99, 2001) and as Iran-Iraq military analyst at the CIA (1988-1995).

Pollack holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1996) and a BA from Yale University (1988).