John Hannah
- Senior Fellow
John Hannah is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute. The former national security advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney and a senior foreign policy practitioner in both Democratic and Republican administrations over the past twenty years, Mr. Hannah directs a new Institute initiative on U.S. Middle East strategy.
During the administration of President George W. Bush, Mr. Hannah was a key policymaking actor on a wide range of issues, from Arab-Israeli diplomacy to Gulf security. From 2001 to 2005, he was Vice President Cheney's deputy national security advisor and top aide on the Middle East. In 2005, he was tapped to run the vice president's Office for National Security Affairs, serving as the chief foreign policy advisor to the vice president until the end of the Bush administration.
During the Clinton era, Mr. Hannah was a senior advisor and speechwriter to Secretary of State Warren Christopher, playing an important role in the secretary's extensive engagement in Middle East diplomacy. As a senior member of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, he made major contributions in developing U.S. policy toward the Middle East -- including the first Gulf War -- and the demise of the Soviet Union.
Mr. Hannah first joined The Washington Institute in 1986 as a researcher focusing on Soviet policy in the Middle East. He was principal drafter of the Institute's influential Presidential Study Group report Building for Peace and author of At Arms Length: Soviet-Syrian Relations in the Gorbachev Era. He served as deputy director from 1989-1991 and again in 1994.
Education: J.D., Yale Law School; B.A., Duke University