Now that it has leaked that the Biden administration is pursuing a secret “deal” with Iran, as Richard Goldberg discussed on EMET’s last webinar, many questions arise. How did we get here? What motivated President Obama to sign the previous Iran deal (the JCPOA) and what is motivating President Biden to spend two-plus years working to elevate Iran while simultaneously criticizing Israel for internal political struggles rather than follow the Trump administration’s policies of ensuring Israel’s enemies know that she is unequivocally backed up by the United States? Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates famously remarked that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” but with regard to Iran and Israel, he is simply following in Obama’s footsteps of putting daylight between the U.S. and Israel and enabling Iranian hegemonic intentions in the region while abetting its terrorist activities. What does the Biden foreign policy mean for Israel and other U.S. allies in the region? What does it mean for U.S. national security interests? Join us for a discussion of all of these complicated yet critically important issues with foreign policy and national security expert Michael Doran whose most recent column, “Biden’s Ties that Bind” is a must-read.

About the speaker: Michael Doran is a senior fellow and director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at Hudson Institute. He specializes in Middle East security issues and co-hosts the Counterbalance podcast.

In the administration of President George W. Bush, Doran served in the White House as a senior director in the National Security Council, where he was responsible for helping to devise and coordinate United States strategies on a variety of Middle East issues, including Arab-Israeli relations and US efforts to contain Iran and Syria. He also served in the Bush administration as a senior advisor in the State Department and a deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Pentagon.

Born in Kokomo, Indiana, Doran went to elementary school in Carmel, outside of Indianapolis, before his family moved to Fullerton, California, where he graduated from Sunny Hills High School. He received a BA from Stanford University and an MA and PhD in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University.

Before coming to Hudson, Doran was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has also held teaching positions at New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Central Florida. His latest book, Ike’s Gamble, was published by Free Press in 2016. He appears frequently on television, and has published extensively in Foreign Affairs, the American Interest, Commentary, Mosaic, the Wall Street Journal,  the Washington Post, and the New York Times.