FORA.tv Speaker - Bruce Riedel

Bruce Riedel is senior fellow for political transitions in the Middle East and South Asia at the Saban Center in the Brookings Institution. He is an analyst of Middle East and South Asia politics with extensive experience in counter-terrorism, energy security and multilateral diplomacy.

Riedel served for eight years as a senior adviser at the National Security Council to the last three presidents of the United States. At the request of President Barack Obama, he chaired an inter-agency review of policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan for the White House, completed in March 2009.

In 2006, Riedel retired from the CIA after nearly 30 years, including postings overseas in the Middle East and Europe. He has also served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Near East and South Asia at the Pentagon and as a senior adviser at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels. Riedel was a member of President Clinton's peace process team at the Camp David, Wye River and Shepherdstown summits.

Riedel is the author of American Diplomacy and the 1999 Kargil Summit at Blair House, Deadly Embrace and The Search for Al Qaeda. Riedel is a graduate of Brown, Harvard and the Royal College of Defense Studies in London.