FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2014
CONTACT
Taleen Ananian
202.778.4993, press@AtlanticCouncil.org
WASHINGTON – The Atlantic Council announced today Michael B. Oren, who recently stepped down after four years as Israel’s ambassador to the United States, will join its Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security on February 1 as ambassador-in-residence.
“Ambassador Oren brings to the Council the powerful mixture of a top historian’s knowledge, a highest-level diplomat’s experience, and a best-selling author’s skills,” said Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council. “At a crucial moment in the history of the Middle East, he deepens the Atlantic Council’s work and expertise on peace and security issues.”
“As the Middle East transitions to an unknown future, the United States and its transatlantic allies and global partners will need to demonstrate leadership to act on bold new ideas about the region and its future in a globalized world,” said Ambassador Oren. “I am delighted to join the Atlantic Council’s standout team to bring cutting edge thinking to the Middle East at a decisive moment in its history.”
Ambassador Oren served as the chief of the Israeli mission from 2009 to 2013, making him one of his country’s longest serving ambassadors to the United States. The US-born historian also has served as a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown, and has been a fellow at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University in Israel.
He also has served as a distinguished fellow at Shalem Center in Jerusalem, a research institute supporting academic work in Israel history, and as a contributing editor to The New Republic. Ambassador Oren has written numerous books, articles, and essays on Middle Eastern history and is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Six-Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East and Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East from 1776 to the Present.
While serving in this new position, Ambassador Oren will participate in Atlantic Council initiatives that will allow him to focus on the emerging maps of the new Middle East, alternative models for an Israeli-Palestinian peace, and the significance of a post-Pax Americana Middle East. He will also pursue his own writing projects and act as Middle East contributor for CNN. In Israel, he holds the Abba Eban Chair in International Diplomacy at the Inter-Disciplinary Center in Herzliya.
The Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security embodies the Council’s long-standing focus on NATO and the transatlantic partnership, while also studying over-the- horizon regional and functional security challenges to the United States, its allies, and partners.
It works in conjunction with the Council’s other regional centers and functional programs to advance the organization’s mission of renewing the transatlantic community for today’s global challenges.