Thomas S. Warrick

  • Nonresident Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative
  • Nonresident Senior Fellow, Adrienne Arsht National Security Resilience Initiative

Adrienne Arsht National Security Resilience Initiative

GeoStrategy Initiative

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative

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Disinformation Economy & Business Geopolitics & Energy Security National Security Oil and Gas Terrorism

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Afghanistan Iran Iraq North & West Africa Pakistan Russia Somalia South Asia Syria Turkey
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Events

Public Event Wed, September 6, 2023 • 11:30 am ET

A conversation with Kenneth Wainstein, DHS Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis
Public Event Tue, May 23, 2023 • 9:00 am ET

Cybersecurity creates new horizons for Abraham Accords
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Online Event Wed, April 26, 2023 • 7:00 am ET

Sudan: Unpacking the crisis
Africa Conflict Sudan
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All Content

MENASource

Jan 31, 2020

The two-state solution comes back

By Thomas S. Warrick

The one-state solution is dead. The two-state solution may have a faint heartbeat, but it is unmistakably alive. Now, at least, we know where we are supposed to end up. All we have to do is to work backwards to find out what it will take to get from here to there.

Israel Middle East

New Atlanticist

Jan 17, 2020

Khamenei’s rare sermon shows Tehran’s continued defiance

By Atlantic Council

Khameinei's January 17 speech shows that "those placing hopes in recent protests in Iran to shake—or even overturn—the system underestimate its power and ruthlessness," Barbara Slavin explains.

Conflict Iran

Congressional Relations

Jan 15, 2020

Congressional hearing – “US-Iran tensions: implications for homeland security”

By Atlantic Council

The Committee meeting examined the homeland security implications of the recent escalation in US-Iran tensions in the wake of the killing of Qasem Soleimani. Witnesses were given time to present opening statements to address possible retaliation followed by questions posed by committee members. Nonresident Senior Fellow Thomas S. Warrick presented four ways in which Iran threatens the homeland: terrorism, cyber-attacks, disinformation, and influence operations. Warrick underscored the imminent threat posed by Iranian cyber-attacks, “Mr. Chairman, the possibility of a terrorist attack by Iran here in the homeland is that, a possibility, but cyber-attacks are a certainty.”

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Thomas S. Warrick is a nonresident senior fellow with the Adrienne Arsht National Security Resilience Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative in the Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council. Previously, he was the acting director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs. Prior to joining the Atlantic Council, from August 2008 to June 2019 he was the deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and a career member of the Senior Executive Service. He was an international lawyer in private practice for seventeen years, representing companies in connection with investments in the Middle East and elsewhere.

From 1997 to 2007, he served in the US Department of State on Middle East and international justice issues. From 1997 to 2001, Warrick was deputy in the Office of the Secretary/Office of War Crimes Issues. In 2001, he became special adviser, then senior adviser, to the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, working on Iraq, Iran, and other issues. From 2002 to 2003, he led the State Department’s “Future of Iraq” project. From October 2003 to June 2006, he served in both Baghdad and Washington. From July 2006 to July 2007, he was director (acting) for Iraq political affairs. He was briefly senior political adviser on the Iran desk in 2007.

Warrick joined the US Department of Homeland Security in August 2007 as director for the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia in the Office of Policy. He became deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy, in the Office of Policy, in August 2008. In February 2015, Warrick was named deputy counterterrorism coordinator for policy by the DHS counterterrorism coordinator and under secretary for intelligence & analysis. In July 2018, when the counterterrorism policy mission was returned to the DHS Office of Policy, Warrick resumed his title of deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy in the Office of Policy/Office of Threat Prevention and Security Policy. Warrick concluded his service as deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy on June 14, 2019.

For the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, Warrick has worked on national strategies involving counterterrorism, Iran, defeating ISIS, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, South Asia, Africa, West Africa Counterterrorism, Somalia, Lebanese Hezbollah, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israeli-Palestinian affairs, countering terrorist propaganda, terrorist travel, terrorist use of the Internet, and Russia.