Flynt Leverett is a leading authority on U.S. foreign policy, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, and global energy issues. From 1992 to 2003, he had a distinguished career in the U.S. government, serving as Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, Middle East Expert on the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff, and Senior Analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. He left the Bush administration and government service in the spring of 2003 because of disagreements about Middle East policy and the conduct of the war on terror more generally. He is a consultant to the World Economic Forum's “Gulf Cooperation Council and the World 2025” scenarios project and to the Club of Madrid on global energy issues. He is a peer reviewer for the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook.

Among Dr. Leverett's many publications are Dealing with Tehran: Assessing U.S. Diplomatic Options toward Iran (2006) and Inheriting Syria: Bashar's Trial by Fire (2005). His op-eds and articles on Middle Eastern issues and global energy affairs have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The National Interest, The Washington Quarterly, and The American Prospect, among other publications. He has appeared on a wide range of news and public affairs programs as well as on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He appears regularly before prominent academic and policy fora in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and has provided expert testimony to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. He also speaks to distinguished business audiences worldwide. He holds a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

As Senior Fellow and Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, Dr. Leverett studies the implications of structural shifts in global energy markets for international politics and the international economy.