Geoffrey Kemp

Director of Regional Strategic Programs at the Nixon Center

Geoffrey Kemp is the Director of Regional Strategic Programs at the Nixon Center. His current areas of interest focus on U.S. policy in the greater Middle East including the geopolitics of energy in the Caspian Basin and Persian Gulf, the Arab-Israeli peace process, and U.S. relations with Iraq and Iran. He received his Ph.D. in political science at M.I.T. and his M.A. and B.A. degrees from Oxford University. He served in the White House during the first Reagan administration and was Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Near East and South Asia on the National Security Council Staff. Prior to his current position, he was a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where he was Director of the Middle East Arms Control Project. In the 1970s he worked in the Defense Department in the Policy Planning and Program Analysis and Evaluation Offices and made major contributions to studies on U.S. security policy and options for South West Asia.

His current work is focused on the growing role of the major Asian countries in the Middle East and what this means for American foreign policy. His book on the topic, The East Moves West: India, China, and Asia’s Growing Presence in the Middle East was published by the Brookings Institution Press in April 2010.

News:

Release of Comprehensive Book on Iran, Including History of Nuclear Program