|
Institutional
Affiliations
Middle East Forum: Middle East Intelligence Bulletin Editorial Board Member; Iran, Iraq, and Kurdish Expert (5) (8)
Middle East Forum Lebanon Study Group: Signatory (6)
American Enterprise Institute: former Resident Scholar (1)
Council on Foreign Relations: International Affairs Fellow (2002-2003) (1) (2)
Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs: Fellowship Recipient (2000-2001) (1) (3)
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon: former Golden Circle member (7)
Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations: Visiting Fellow (16)
Washington Institute for Near East Policy: Soref Fellow (1999-2000)
Yale University: Lecturer (1)
Hebrew University: Lecturer (1)
Sulaymani University (Iraq): Lecturer (4)
Salahuddin University (Iraq): Lecturer (4)
Dahuk University (Iraq): Lecturer (4)
Government Service
Office of the Secretary of Defense: Staff Adviser for Iran and Iraq and Member of Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq (2002-2004) (1)
Pentagon Office of Special Plans: Iran/Iraq Adviser (2002-2004) (2)
Education
Yale University: B.S. in biology; Ph.D. in history (1)
Right Web Connections
American Enterprise Institute
Benador Associates
Middle East Forum
Office of Special Plans
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon
Washington Institute for Near East Policy |
Highlights
& Quotes
Michael Rubin is one of the youngest neoconservative figures to gain prominence within the George W. Bush administration. A Yale graduate whose dissertation focused on modern Iran, Rubin has traveled extensively in Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sudan. (1)
Rubin, an AEI scholar, was involved in several meetings and conferences officiated by Douglas Feith and Harold Rhode at AEI as part of the Bush transition team. One of the objectives of these meetings was to reshape the top leadership at the Pentagon, sidelining or removing those who were regarded as moderates. Out of these discussions came the idea for the creation of the Office of Special Plans (OSP). (10)
Between 2002 and 2004, Rubin worked as a staff adviser for Iran and Iraq in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in which capacity he was seconded to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Rubin was assigned to the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans, which was fold into the Northern Gulf Affairs Office after the unit was implicated in cooking intelligence information to justify the Iraq war and occupation. (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14)
In a National Review article, Rubin discusses sentiments expressed whenever Secretary of State Colin Powell and Special Envoy Anthony Zinni would visit Israel.
“While working at Hebrew University this past year, I took the bus to campus each day. Whenever U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell or Special Envoy Anthony Zinni was dispatched to Israel, colleagues would urge me to stay home until after the suicide bombing. Middle Easterners understand the lesson those in the U.S. and Europe are still learning: When governments engage dictators, civilians suffer.” (15)
If not immediately evident, Powell and Zinni are not considered part of the neoconservative cabal. Retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and former Pentagon official Karen Kwiatkowski, in an expose article in Salon, described how these how these two administration officials are viewed by neoconservatives like Rubin:
“Neoconservatives march as one phalanx in parallel opposition to those they hate. In the early winter of 2002, a co-worker U.S. Navy captain and I were discussing the service being rendered by Colin Powell at the time, and we were told by the neoconservative political appointee David Schenker that "the best service Powell could offer would be to quit right now." I was present at a staff meeting when Bill Luti called Marine Gen. and former Chief of Central Command Anthony Zinni a "traitor," because Zinni had publicly expressed reservations about the rush to war.” (9)
Rubin has written one book, Into the Shadows: Radical Vigilantes in Khatami's Iran (2001), and has published numerous articles in such neoconservative publications as the New Republic, Wall Street Journal, Jerusalem Post, Commentary, and Middle East Quarterly.
After his work with OSP and the Provisional Authority, Rubin has returned to the neocon think tank community, resuming his associations with AEI, Middle East Forum, and the Washington Institute for Near East Affairs. He is part of the speakers’ bureau of the neocon public relations agency, Benador Associates, which says that Rubin “speaks widely to both military and non-military audiences in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.” Rubin sits on the three-member advisory board of the Middle East Quarterly, which is copublished by the Middle East Forum and the U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon. |
