Martin S. Indyk was the Lowy distinguished fellow in U.S.-Middle East diplomacy from 2018 to 2024 at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Previously, he was the executive vice president of the Brookings Institution. Indyk served as President Barack Obama's special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from July 2013 to June 2014. Before his time as special envoy, he was vice president and director of the Foreign Policy program and the founding director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings. Ambassador Indyk passed away on July 25, 2024, at age 73.
Indyk served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2000 to 2001. He also served as special assistant to President Bill Clinton and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council (1993–95) and as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in the U.S. Department of State (1997–2000).
Before entering government, Indyk was founding executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy for eight years. He serves on the boards of the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Australia, the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, the Israel Policy Forum, and chairs the Aspen Institute’s Middle East Investment Initiative. Indyk also serves as a member of the advisory boards of the Israel Democracy Institute and America Abroad Media.
Indyk is the author of Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy (A.A. Knopf, 2021) and Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East" (Simon and Schuster, 2009) and the co-author of Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy with Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Lieberthal (Brookings Institution Press, 2012).
Indyk received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Sydney and a doctorate in international relations from the Australian National University.
Council of Councils
Think Global Health
Online Store
