Rudolph Atallah

Rudolph “Rudy” Atallah is a nonresident senior fellow with the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programs, where he focuses on the Counterterrorism Project.

Atallah is a national security executive, retired US Air Force officer, and expert in counterterrorism, geopolitical risk, crisis diplomacy, and international security. With more than thirty years of military, government, and private-sector experience, he has advised senior US officials and foreign leaders on complex security challenges across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. He currently serves as chief executive officer of White Mountain Research Inc. and holds an active Top Secret security clearance.

Atallah served at the White House National Security Council as deputy senior director for counterterrorism, where he helped lead and coordinate US counterterrorism policy across fifty-nine countries in Africa and the Levant. Across the departments of State, Defense, Treasury, and Homeland Security, as well as the intelligence community, he advised senior US leadership on counterterrorism, crisis response, and diplomacy. During his White House tenure, Atallah helped reestablish US counterterrorism engagement with Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger and supported renewed operational cooperation against jihadist networks in the Sahel. Earlier in his career, Atallah advised US defense leadership within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. A former Air Force defense attaché in West Africa, Atallah advised US ambassadors and foreign defense ministries and directed aviation operations supporting US diplomatic missions. He is also a highly experienced military aviator.

Atallah holds a master of science in international relations from Troy University and a bachelor of science in electrical and biomedical engineering from the University of Connecticut. He is fluent in Arabic and French. His military honors include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal for his involvement in the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips and the Air Medal for combat missions during the first Gulf War.