Shalom Lipner is a nonresident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative of the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs, where his primary research interests include the US-Israel bilateral relationship, Israel’s foreign and defense policy and domestic affairs, and Middle East regional dynamics.

Lipner served seven consecutive Israeli premiers over a quarter-century at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, where his areas of core expertise included foreign policy, public diplomacy and communications, and Jewish communal affairs. Among the positions he held were assistant foreign policy advisor to the prime minister, advisor to the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, special coordinator for public diplomacy, advisor to the Minister of Israeli Society and the World Jewish Community, and director of communications for the Government Press Office. Lipner also filled terms as coordinator of the US-Israel Strategic Dialogue and director of the Government Coordinating Committee on Countering Antisemitism.

After leaving government service, Lipner was a nonresident senior fellow with the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. His commentary and analysis have been featured internationally in The New York Times, Politico, Foreign Affairs, The Jerusalem Post, The Atlantic, The Australian, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, Ha’aretz, US News and World Report, Al-Jazeera,Asia Times, The National Interest, The Forward, Defense News, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Hill, and other publications.  

Lipner earned a BA in international relations and political science from the University of Toronto, an MA in international relations and American studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an MS in management studies from Boston University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, which he attended as a Wexner-Israel Fellow.