Michael Singh

Michael Singh is the Lane-Swig Senior Fellow and managing director at The Washington Institute and a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council.

During his tenure at the White House from 2005 to 2008, Mr. Singh was responsible for devising and coordinating U.S. national security policy toward the region stretching from Morocco to Iran, with a particular emphasis on Iran’s nuclear and regional activities, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Syria, and security cooperation in the broader Middle East. Previously, Mr. Singh served as special assistant to secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell and at the U.S. embassy in Israel.

Mr. Singh is co-chair of the congressionally-mandated Syria Study Group, which is charged with providing Congress and the executive branch with an assessment of the situation in Syria and recommendations for U.S. policy there. Its final report was published in September 2019. He also served on another congressional commission, the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States. Mr. Singh served as a Middle East advisor to the Romney presidential campaign from 2011-2012, and co-chaired Mr. Romney’s State Department transition team in 2012. He served as an adjunct fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and as an economics instructor at Harvard College. Mr. Singh is also is a senior advisor at WestExec Advisors, which provides advice to private clients on international public policy and political risk.

Mr. Singh has written extensively on the Middle East, broader U.S. national security strategy, and the organization and management of the U.S. national security apparatus. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, International Security, and elsewhere, and he has appeared as a commentator on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and other outlets.

As the Institute's managing director, Mr. Singh conducts policy research and participates in the public debate over the direction and content of U.S. Middle East policy. In addition, he works closely with Institute executive director Robert Satloff to strengthen the Institute's policy impact, develop new initiatives, and oversee its broader work.