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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Sudan: Unpacking the crisis
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New Atlanticist

Dec 2, 2019

Iraqi prime minister’s resignation: Lessons for the United States and Iran

By Thomas S. Warrick

The current crisis has important lessons for both United States and Iranian policymakers as they consider what relationship they want to have with Iraq: not just the Iraqi political class, but the Iraqis in the street, who represent—in some cases more closely than the Iraqi political class in Baghdad—the 80 percent of Iraqis who are under forty years old.

Democratic Transitions Iraq

Press and members call

Dec 2, 2019

Atlantic Council press call: Iraqi Prime Minister resigns amid violent protests

By Atlantic Council

On Friday, November 29, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi announced plans to resign after nearly two months of anti-government protests. The nationwide demonstrations, which have been driven by anger over rampant corruption and high unemployment rates, have turned increasingly violent and have resulted in close to 400 fatalities. Following Mahdi's resignation, Abbas Kadhim, C. Anthony Pfaff, Thomas Warrick, and William Wechsler unpack the crisis in Iraq.

Iraq Politics & Diplomacy

MENASource

Oct 31, 2019

With Abdul-Mahdi offering to resign, what’s next for Iraq?

By Middle East programs

Atlantic Council experts react to the announcement of the Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi resigning. Abbas Kadhim is the Director of the Iraq Initiative at the Atlantic Council. “In his address to the Iraqi people on October 31, President Barham Salih referred to Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi’s offer to resign if the two major parliamentary blocs […]

Corruption Iraq
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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.