Brett McGurk is a Distinguished Fellow with the Atlantic Council and the Jeffrey M Talpins Foundation’s N7 Initiative. McGurk served as deputy assistant to former US President Joe Biden and White House coordinator for the Middle East region. In this role, he helped leading multi-month negotiations across the region to secure the release of Israeli hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza, coordinating Israel’s defense against the largest ballistic missile attacks in history, and overseeing all aspects of US engagement throughout the Middle East and North Africa. 

As special presidential envoy for US Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, McGurk built and then led a global coalition of more than eighty countries to defeat ISIS and prevent future attacks into Europe as well as the US homeland. He also led secret negotiations with Iran to secure the release of American hostages. As a senior White House official under George W. Bush, McGurk was an early advocate for a change in war policy and helped develop “the surge” to better align the ends and means of US strategy.