Elliott Abrams

Elliott Abrams is an American foreign policy specialist and senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he focuses on U.S. policy toward the Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian relations, and democracy promotion. Throughout his career, Abrams has served in senior roles across three Republican administrations, including as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, and Inter-American Affairs during the Reagan presidency from 1981 to 1989; as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Operations at the National Security Council, later promoted to Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009; and as Special Representative for Venezuela in 2019 and for Iran and Venezuela in 2020 under Donald Trump. Abrams' work has emphasized advancing democracy and human rights as core components of U.S. foreign policy, particularly in challenging authoritarian regimes in Latin America and the Middle East, though his involvement in the Reagan-era Iran-Contra affair—where he encouraged third-country funding for Nicaraguan Contras and withheld related information from Congress—resulted in guilty pleas to two misdemeanor counts in 1991, followed by a presidential pardon from George H.W. Bush.