BIO

Daniel B. Shapiro is a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Middle East programs, where he serves as director of the N7 Initiative, which aims to expand and deepen normalization between Israel and Arab states.  He was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Institute of National Security Studies from 2017 to 2021, following a diverse career of over 20 years in senior foreign policy and national security positions in the United States government.

He was appointed by President Obama to be United States Ambassador to Israel, a position he held from July 2011 until the end of the Obama Administration.  He won praise from leaders of both countries for his deft management of the U.S.-Israel relationship during Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, the Iran nuclear agreement, regional instability, and periods of significant bilateral tension and disagreement.  Among his major contributions were negotiating the $38 billion Memorandum of Understanding for U.S. military aid to Israel, unprecedented public outreach in fluent Hebrew to Israel’s diverse communities, and 40 percent growth in U.S.-Israel trade.

He previously served as Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa on the National Security Council, in which he served as a member of Special Envoy George Mitchell’s team, led U.S. diplomatic efforts in Syria and Lebanon, and advised President Obama through the early months of the upheavals in Arab states in 2011.  He also served in numerous senior advisory positions in the U.S. Congress, including with Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He served as a senior adviser to the Special Envoy for Iran during the Biden Administration.

He holds degrees from Brandeis University and Harvard University. He is married to Julie Fisher and they have 3 daughters.