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Richard Nephew

  • Bernstein Adjunct Fellow
Also available in:
  • العربية
Richard Nephew
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Richard Nephew is the Bernstein Adjunct Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He has spent much of his career in the U.S. government in various capacities. From 2022-2024, he was the inaugural U.S. Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption at the Department of State. He was also elected as the President of the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption in December 2023. Previously, he served as the Deputy Special Envoy for Iran (2021), Principal Deputy Coordinator for Sanctions Policy at the Department of State (2013-2015), and Director for Iran at the National Security Council (2011-2013), and in several senior civil service staff roles from 2003-2011.

He is a Senior Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Nephew joined Columbia in 2015 and, since that time, he has written dozens of reports and articles for various publications focused on geopolitics and their intersection with energy markets, economic statecraft, nuclear topics, and sanctions. He is also the author of The Art of Sanctions: A View from the Field, published by Columbia University Press in 2018. He was a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution from 2015-2021.

In addition to his appointments at Columbia and The Washington Institute, he operates his own consulting LLC, Go Beyond Compliance.

Education

M.S., The George Washington University

B.A., The George Washington University

Richard Nephew
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Recent Policy Analysis by Richard Nephew

US and Israeli military planes participate in the 2023 Juniper Oak joint exercise - source: IDF
Brief Analysis
Bombing Iran's Nuclear Program: Implications of Preventive Action
Mar 25, 2025
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  • Dana Stroul
  • Richard Nephew
  • Michael Eisenstadt
  • Holly Dagres
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi greets Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi in Beijing in March 2025 - source: Reuters
Brief Analysis
Leveraging the Gaps in Russia and China’s Complex Relations with Iran
Mar 24, 2025
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  • Richard Nephew
A photo illustration shows US and Iranian flags and an atomic symbol - source: Reuters
Articles & Testimony
A Last Chance for Iran
Jan 2, 2025
◆
  • Richard Nephew
U.S. and Iranian flags
Brief Analysis
Before Maximum Pressure, Trump Needs an Iran Strategy
Nov 14, 2024
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  • Richard Nephew
Articles & Testimony
Easier Said than Done: Renewing Maximum Pressure on Iran
August 2024
◆
  • Richard Nephew
All Policy Analysis by Richard Nephew
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