Bruce Riedel

Bruce O. Riedel (born 1953) is an American expert on U.S. security, the Middle East, South Asia, and counter-terrorism. He is currently a nonresident senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and an instructor at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.

Riedel served as an analyst and counter-terrorism expert at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1977 until his retirement in 2006. During his tenure at the agency, he advised presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush on Middle Eastern and South Asian issues on the staff of the National Security Council (NSC). In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed him chair of a White House review committee formed to overhaul U.S. policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Riedel is a contributor to several periodicals and an author of books examining topics related to counter-terrorism, Arab-Israeli relations, Persian Gulf security, and South Asia, especially India and Pakistan.

Early life and education Riedel was born in 1953 in Queens, New York City.

Honors Secretary of Defense Distinguished Service Medal (1997) Distinguished Intelligence Medal (2001) Department of State Meritorious Honor Award (2006), for work in the intelligence and defense communities

Publications

Books

As contributor (With Kenneth M. Pollack, Daniel L. Byman, and Martin Indyk) (With Kenneth M. Pollack, Daniel L. Byman, Akram Al-Turk, Pavel Baev, Michael S. Dora, Khaled Elgindy, Stephen R. Grand, Shadi Hamid, Bruce D. Jones, Suzanne Maloney, Jonathan D. Pollack, Ruth Hanau Santini, Salman Shaikh, Ibrahim Sharqieh, Shibley Telhami, and Sarah E. Yerkes) (With James G. Blight, Janet M. Lang, Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne, and John Tirman)

Personal life Riedel is married. His wife, Elizabeth, whom he met at the CIA, was a Middle East analyst at the agency as of 2008.