Skip to main content
TWI logo The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
logo
wordmark
Homepage

Main navigation

  • Analysis
  • Experts
  • About
  • Support
  • Maps & Multimedia
Trending:
  • Great Power Competition
  • Proliferation
  • Turkey
  • Syria
  • Iran

Regions & Countries

  • Egypt
  • Gulf States
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Israel
  • Jordan
  • Lebanon
  • Middle East
  • North Africa
  • Palestinians
  • Syria
  • Turkey

Issues

  • Arab & Islamic Politics
  • Arab-Israeli Relations
  • Democracy & Reform
  • Energy & Economics
  • Great Power Competition
  • Gulf & Energy Policy
  • Military & Security
  • Peace Process
  • Proliferation
  • Terrorism
  • U.S. Policy
TWI English
TWI Arabic: اللغة العربية TWI Persian: فارسی Fikra Forum

Breadcrumb

  • Experts

David Schenker

  • Taube Senior Fellow
  • Director, Program on Arab Politics
Also available in:
  • العربية
  • Farsi
David Schenker addresses a Washington Institute conference
David Schenker
Download High-Resolution Portrait

David Schenker is the Taube Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Program on Arab Politics. Confirmed by the Senate on June 5, 2019, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs through January 2021. In that capacity, he was the principal Middle East advisor to the secretary of state and the senior official overseeing the conduct of U.S. policy and diplomacy in a region stretching from Morocco to Iran to Yemen, with responsibility for eighteen countries, the Palestinian Authority, and Western Sahara. He also supervised more than 9,000 staff and administered an annual budget in excess of $7 billion.

In policy terms, he led the bureau's efforts to advance American interests abroad and strengthen U.S. partnerships and alliances across the region. Via diplomacy and the effective allocation of resources and assistance—as well as through imposition of sanctions—he worked to promote human rights, deter terrorism, fight corruption, and push back against regional adversaries. In addition to developing and implementing the U.S. strategy on China in the region, he worked to heal the Gulf rift between Qatar and neighboring states, resolve intractable conflicts in Libya and Yemen, consolidate the Abraham Accords, and counter malign Iranian influence in the Middle East.

Prior to joining the State Department, Schenker worked as the Aufzien Fellow and director of the Beth and David Geduld Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute from 2006 to 2019. During that period, he authored dozens of op-eds, journal articles, and PolicyWatches about Jordan, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Egypt, among other topics, and contributed chapters to Institute monographs such as Beyond Islamists and Autocrats: Prospects for Political Reform Post Arab Spring (2017) and No Good Outcome: How Israel Could be Drawn into the Syrian Conflict (2013). He also published a chapter on U.S.-Lebanese relations in Lebanon: Liberation, Conflict, and Crisis (Palgrave, 2009), and authored Egypt’s Enduring Challenges (2011), an Institute monograph focusing on the post-Mubarak situation.

Previously, from 2002 to 2006, Schenker served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Levant country director, the Pentagon's top policy aide on the Arab nations of the Levant. In that capacity, he advised the secretary and other senior Pentagon leadership on the military and political affairs of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories. He was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service in 2005.

Prior to joining the government in 2002, Schenker focused on Arab governance issues as a research fellow at The Washington Institute, and worked as a project coordinator for a Bethesda-based contractor responsible for large, centrally funded USAID programs in Egypt and Jordan. He also authored the Institute books Dancing with Saddam: The Strategic Tango of Jordanian-Iraqi Relations (copublished with Lexington Books, 2003) and Palestinian Democracy and Governance: An Appraisal of the Legislative Council (2001). His writings on Arab affairs have appeared in a number of prominent scholarly journals and newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Jerusalem Post.

Education

M.A., University of Michigan; Certificate, Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), American University in Cairo; B.A., University of Vermont

David Schenker addresses a Washington Institute conference
David Schenker
Download High-Resolution Portrait

Contact

(202) 230-9550 (media inquiries only)
(202) 452-0650 (other inquiries)
press@washingtoninstitute.org

Featured Publications

Maps & Graphics
The Lines That Bind: 100 Years of Sykes-Picot
A century after diplomats Mark Sykes of Britain and François Georges-Picot of France drew up a secret agreement to divide
Dec 19, 2016
◆
  • Andrew J. Tabler
Lebanon's [Un]Civil Society
This contribution, the fifth in a series exploring prospects for political reform throughout the Middle East, considers the strengths and limitations of Lebanon’s robust civil society.
Mar 4, 2016
◆
  • David Schenker
Beyond Islamists and Autocrats:
Prospects for Political Reform Post Arab Spring
The compiled series provides a timely country-by-country guidebook for engaging non-Islamist, pluralistically inclined actors in North Africa, the Gulf, and the Levant.
Nov 27, 2017
◆
  • David Schenker
  • Sarah Feuer
  • Vish Sakthivel
  • John P. Entelis
  • Simon Henderson
  • Nathaniel Rabkin
  • Nadia al-Sakkaf
  • Eric Trager
  • Hala Aldosari
  • Lori Plotkin Boghardt
  • Ghaith al-Omari
  • James Bowker
  • Andrew J. Tabler
  • David Pollock
  • Hassan Mneimneh
Egypt's Enduring Challenges:
Shaping the Post-Mubarak Environment
Although the Papyrus Revolution was a remarkable accomplishment for the Egyptian people, the ongoing transition has spurred trepidation as well
Apr 13, 2011
◆
  • David Schenker
No Good Outcome:
How Israel Could Be Drawn into the Syrian Conflict
Given the complexities and dynamics of the Syrian conflict, it is distinctly possible that Israel could be drawn into the
Nov 26, 2013
◆
  • Patrick Clawson
  • Michael Eisenstadt
  • Matthew Levitt
  • David Schenker
  • Andrew J. Tabler
  • Jeffrey White
  • Aaron Y. Zelin
Dancing with Saddam:
The Strategic Tango of Jordanian-Iraqi Relations
Jordan has long served as a pivot between moderate pro-Western and radical anti-American states in the Middle East. In the
Aug 1, 2003
◆
  • David Schenker
Palestinian Democracy and Governance:
An Appraisal of the Legislative Council
Jan 1, 2000
◆
  • David Schenker

Recent Policy Analysis by David Schenker

Fires burn after the August 2020 port explosion in Beirut - source: Reuters
Brief Analysis
The Lebanon Human Rights Report: Punting on Accountability?
Mar 28, 2023
◆
  • David Schenker
Buoys mark the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon in the Mediterranean Sea - source: Reuters
Articles & Testimony
Securing or Insecuring Israel? Assessing the Israel-Lebanon Maritime Agreement
Mar 7, 2023
◆
  • David Schenker
Biden, Jordan's King Abdullah, Crown Prince Hussein
Brief Analysis
Abdullah and Biden Need to Discuss Economics, Not Just Israeli-Palestinian Tensions
Feb 1, 2023
◆
  • David Schenker
Iraqi prime minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani in 2022 - source: Wikimedia Commons
Brief Analysis
Sudani’s Wobbly Balancing Act Between Tehran and Washington
Jan 27, 2023
◆
  • David Schenker
Articles & Testimony
The UNIFIL Follies Turn Deadly on the Israel-Lebanon Border
Jan 24, 2023
◆
  • David Schenker
President Joe Biden waves from the steps of Air Force One - source: White House photo
Brief Analysis
Biden Heads to Egypt Amid Economic Protests and Libyan Gridlock
Nov 10, 2022
◆
  • David Schenker
  • Ben Fishman
All Policy Analysis by David Schenker
Background image with TWI branding
logo
wordmark
Homepage

1111 19th Street NW - Suite 500
Washington D.C. 20036
Tel: 202-452-0650
Fax: 202-223-5364

Footer contact links

  • Contact
  • Press Room
  • Subscribe

The Washington Institute seeks to advance a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the Middle East and to promote the policies that secure them.

The Institute is a 501(c)3 organization; all donations are tax-deductible.

Footer quick links

  • About TWI
  • Support the Institute

Social media

  • The Washington Institute on Facebook facebook
  • The Washington Institute on Twitter twitter
  • The Washington Institute on YouTube youtube
  • The Washington Institute on Soundcloud soundcloud

© 2023 All rights reserved.

Footer

  • Employment
  • Privacy Policy
  • Rights & Permissions