Amir Asmar is a nonresident senior fellow with the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programs. He is also an adjunct instructor of Middle East strategic issues at the National Intelligence University. He retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and federal service in January 2023, where his final role was deputy chief, Office of Partner Mission Integration. He previously served as deputy director of DIA’s Office of Partner Engagement, overseeing foreign engagement issues. In 2020, he was a national intelligence fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Between 2018 and 2019, Asmar was deputy director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s President’s Daily Brief (PDB) staff, managing the staff of briefers for senior US policymakers. Prior to this, he was chief of DIA’s Executive Production Staff, leading the team preparing DIA’s defense intelligence digest and contributions to the PDB and National Intelligence Council products.
From 2010 to 2017, Asmar was the defense intelligence officer for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In this role, he maximized intelligence support to senior officials across the government, developed engagement strategies with foreign partners, and promoted intelligence integration. He briefed high-level audiences, including the director of national intelligence, the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and congressional committees.
Before becoming the defense intelligence officer, Asmar was DIA’s senior defense intelligence analyst for Iran, managing analytic production. From 2007 to 2010, he served as the senior intelligence officer for DIA’s MENA Analysis Office. He also deployed to Iraq in 2009 as the senior intelligence officer for Multinational Forces–Iraq. Earlier in his career, he served at the National Intelligence Council as deputy national intelligence officer for the Near East and held positions focused on the Persian Gulf and counterterrorism analysis at DIA.
Asmar completed his undergraduate studies at Pomona College and earned his master of arts from the University of Chicago’s Center for Middle East Studies. He also served in the US Peace Corps in Niger.