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JINSA Welcomes Dr. Michael Makovsky As Its New Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director

Washington — Amid a time of rising U.S. strategic challenges from Iran’s advancing nuclear program, a drastically changing Middle East, declining U.S. defense budget, and questions about the U.S. role in the world, the Washington, D.C.-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) is pleased to announce the hiring of Dr. Michael Makovsky as its Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director.


Washington — Amid a time of rising U.S. strategic challenges from Iran’s advancing nuclear program, a drastically changing Middle East, declining U.S. defense budget, and questions about the U.S. role in the world, the Washington, D.C.-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) is pleased to announce the hiring of Dr. Michael Makovsky as its Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director.

“I am incredibly pleased that Michael Makovsky has joined JINSA. There is no question in my mind that he will lead JINSA to new heights and increase our organization’s visibility,” says JINSA Chairman Michael Nachman. “Makovsky brings to JINSA two decades of experience and he will strengthen our role as one of the most relevant and important institutions in Washington on national security issues.”

A well-respected U.S. national security expert, with a background in government, academia, and finance, Makovsky’s areas of policy expertise include Iran’s nuclear program, the Middle East, and international energy markets. For six years prior to joining JINSA, he served as Foreign Policy Director at the Bipartisan Policy Center. In 2002-2006, he served in the Office of Secretary of Defense for the Coalition Provisional Authority, the postwar Allied entity that governed Iraq. Earlier, he worked for a decade as an energy market analyst for several investment firms. He is founder and president of MSM Consulting LLC, an energy and political risk consulting firm.

“I am very excited about the opportunity to head this storied organization, amid a time of such international flux and a plethora of strategic challenges to the United States,” Makovsky said. “I look forward to working with the JINSA staff and board to further enhance and solidify the organization’s reputation and capacity for effective national security programs and in-depth policy work.”

Makovsky is a prolific writer of articles and op-eds on Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and Middle Eastern energy and diplomatic issues for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Weekly Standard, and The New Republic, and been interviewed on CNBC, CNN, NPR, Voice of America (Persian), and other media. He is also author of the award-winning Churchill’s Promised Land (Yale U. Press, 2007), a diplomatic-intellectual history that examines Winston Churchill’s complex relationship Zionism and his worldview.

Makovsky has a Ph.D. in diplomatic history from Harvard University, an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School, and a B.A. in history from the University of Chicago.

David Steinmann, Co-Chairman of JINSA’s Board of Advisors says that, “Michael Makovsky brings to JINSA strong national security credentials and an intimate knowledge of the interplay between politics and policy. We could not be more pleased to work with him to advance JINSA’s mission.”

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