Martin Indyk
Martin Sean Indyk, born July 1, 1951 is a lobbyist and former United States ambassador to Israel. He is arguably best known as the framer of the U.S. policy of dual containment which sought to 'contain' Iraq and Iran, Israel's two most important strategic adversaries.
Personal history
He was born to a Jewish family in London, England, but grew up and was educated in Australia, growing up in the Sydney suburb of Castlecrag. He graduated from the University of Sydney in 1972 and got a PhD in international relations from the Australian National University in 1977. He gained American citizenship in 1993. He is married to Jill Indyk with whom he has two children, Sarah and Jacob. His sister is an architect who resides in Sydney, Australia and has one son, Elan. [citation needed]
Working life
In 1982, Indyk began working as a research director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington.[1][2] After that, Indyk served eight years as the founding Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a research institute specializing in Arab-Israel relations. He has also been an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies where he taught Israeli politics and foreign policy.
He has taught at the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, and the Department of Politics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Indyk has published widely on U.S. policy toward the Arab-Israeli peace process, on U.S.-Israeli relations, and on the threats of Middle East stability posed by Iraq and Iran.
He served as special assistant to U.S. President Bill Clinton and as senior director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the United States National Security Council. While at the NSC, he served as principal adviser to the President and the National Security Advisor on Arab-Israeli issues, Iraq, Iran, and South Asia. He was a senior member of Secretary of State Warren Christopher's Middle East peace team and served as the White House representative on the U.S. Israel Science and Technology Commission.[3]
He served two stints as United States Ambassador to Israel, from April 1995 to September 1997 and from January 2000 to July 2001[4] and was the first and so far, the only, foreign-born US Ambassador to Israel.
The Weekend Australian of March 22-3, 2008 [5], reported that an Iraqi operative in the Gaza Strip wrote a letter, dated June 30, 2001, to Baath Party officials in Baghdad suggesting the assassination of Indyk, a plot which came to nothing.
He is today a Senior Fellow and Director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy in the Foreign Policy Studies program at The Brookings Institution
References
External links
- 1951 births
- Living people
- Ambassadors of the United States
- American Israel Public Affairs Committee
- English Americans
- English Jews
- Foreign-born American politicians
- American Jews
- American academics
- Jewish American politicians
- Australian Americans
- Australian Jews
- Naturalized citizens of the United States
- Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- United States ambassadors to Israel