Brett McGurk is a CNN Global Affairs Analyst and writes a regular column for CNN subscribers, bringing a unique first-hand “inside the room” perspective to viewers and readers.

Over the span of two decades, McGurk served in senior White House and State Department posts for four US Presidents. Most recently, McGurk served as Deputy Assistant to President Biden and White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. In this role, he spearheaded responses to some of the most complex diplomatic challenges of our time – leading multi-month negotiations across the region to secure the release of hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza, coordinating Israel’s defense against the largest ballistic missile attacks in history, and overseeing all aspects of US engagement throughout the Middle East and North Africa at moments of acute crisis and challenge.

As special presidential envoy for Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, McGurk built and then led a global coalition of more than eighty countries together with local forces on the ground to defeat ISIS and prevent future attacks into Europe as well as the US homeland. He also led secret negotiations with Iran to secure the release of American hostages, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaein, later receiving the James Foley Freedom Award for hostage diplomacy. As a senior White House official under George W. Bush, McGurk was an early advocate for a change in Iraq policy and helped develop “the surge” to better align the ends and means of US strategy. He later negotiated the Strategic Framework Agreement between Iraq and the United States, which continues to guide relations between the two countries.

Earlier, McGurk spent nearly a year in Iraq as an advisor to the Department of Defense where he helped coordinate the transition from the Coalition Provisional Authority to an Interim Iraqi Government and facilitated the negotiation of Iraq’s interim constitution. Prior to his career in foreign affairs, McGurk served as a law clerk on the U.S. Supreme Court for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. He earlier clerked on the U.S. appellate and district courts in Manhattan.

During a brief period out of government service in 2019 and 2020, McGurk taught graduate courses on strategy and presidential decision-making at Stanford University. He is currently writing a book on his first-hand experiences with presidential decision-making in wartime and high-stakes diplomacy to be published by Crown.

In addition to his role at CNN, McGurk is a distinguished fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center and the Atlantic Council where he advises the N7 Initiative. He is a Venture Partner at Lux Capital, Senior Advisor for International Affairs at Cisco, and regularly briefs CEOs and major corporations on strategies to navigate global uncertainty and risks. He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and Columbia University School of Law and lives in Washington DC.