Brett McGurk

Brett H. McGurk (born April 20, 1973) is an American diplomat, attorney, and academic who served in senior national security positions under presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

He currently serves as deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.

He was the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIL.

McGurk was born to Barry McGurk, an English professor, and Carol Ann Capobianco, an art teacher, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 20, 1973.

His family later moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, where he graduated from Conard High School in 1991.

McGurk received his BA from the University of Connecticut Honors Program in 1996, and his JD from Columbia Law School in 1999.

While at Columbia, he was a senior editor of the Columbia Law Review and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

He is a member of the Theta Chapter of the Zeta Psi Fraternity.

After graduation, McGurk completed clerkships in the federal judiciary for Judge Gerard E. Lynch on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Dennis Jacobs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Manhattan), and for Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Following his clerkships, McGurk served briefly as appellate litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis as well as an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia School of Law.

In January 2004, McGurk returned to public service as a legal advisor to both the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and the United States ambassador in Baghdad.

During his tenure in Baghdad, McGurk helped draft Iraq's interim constitution, the Transitional Administrative Law, and oversaw the legal transition from the CPA to an Interim Iraqi Government led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

In 2005, he was transferred to the National Security Council, where he served as director for Iraq, and later as special assistant to the president and senior director for Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2006, McGurk became an early advocate for a fundamental change in Iraq policy and helped develop what is now known as "the surge," which began in January 2007.

President Bush later asked McGurk to lead negotiations with Ambassador Ryan Crocker to establish a strategic framework agreement and security agreement with the government of Iraq, thereby ensuring continuity in policy beyond the end of his administration.

In 2009, McGurk was retained during the transition from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, serving as a senior advisor to both the president and the United States ambassador to Iraq.

McGurk left government service in the fall of 2009 and served as a resident fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics.

He also served as an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

He has also been a frequent commentator on several news outlets.

He was called back into public service in the summer of 2010 after a deadlock over formation of a new Iraqi government, and later in the summer of 2011, following a deadlock in negotiations with the government of Iraq to extend the security agreement that had been concluded in 2008.

In August 2013, he was appointed deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department.

In November 2013, and again in February 2014, McGurk testified before the House Armed Services Committee about the emerging threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

McGurk also served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran and from October 2014 through January 2016 led secret negotiations with Iran that led to a prisoner swap and release of four Americans from Iran.

He earlier served under President George W. Bush as special assistant to the president and senior director for Iraq and Afghanistan, and under President Barack Obama as a senior advisor to the National Security Council and U.S. ambassador to Iraq.

On June 9, 2014, McGurk was in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, when ISIL overran Mosul's city and approached Baghdad.

He later flew to Baghdad and helped oversee the evacuation of 1,500 U.S. employees from the U.S. embassy, while working with President Barack Obama and the National Security Council to develop the U.S. diplomatic and military response to the ISIL threat.

McGurk would ultimately play a leading role in facilitating the establishment of a new government in Iraq, led by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and removing Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, who had served as prime minister for eight years.

On September 12, 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry announced McGurk's appointment as deputy senior envoy with the rank of ambassador to General John Allen, who that day was named to the newly created position of special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIL.

On December 3, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium, a formal alliance of 62 nations was formed to support Iraq and help the new government under Prime Minister Abadi fight ISIL along five military and diplomatic lines of effort.

In his role as special presidential envoy, McGurk worked to organize a global coalition of nations as well as coalitions on the ground in Iraq and Syria to help eject ISIL from its strongholds.

He was intimately involved, for example, in negotiating agreements between Arabs and Kurds to prepare for the liberation of Mosul.

He also helped lead negotiations with Turkey to open Incirlik airbase for counter-ISIL missions, and prepare the historic defense of Kobani in Syria by negotiating with Turkey to permit the Kurdish Peshmerga to enter the besieged city through Turkish territory.

McGurk has since visited the battlefields of Kobani where he met officials from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People's Protection Units (YPG), as well as the front lines in Mosul to meet with Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish Pershmerga prior to an offensive to secure the eastern side of the city.

He also helped rally the global coalition for military and financial contributions to support major counter-ISIL operations in Iraq and Syria, with emphasis on post-conflict stabilization and returning the displaced to their homes.

He was appointed to this post by Obama in October 2015 and was retained in that role by the Trump administration until 2018.

On October 23, 2015, Secretary Kerry announced McGurk's appointment as ambassador and deputy special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIL.

Three days later, McGurk met in the Oval Office with Obama and Allen to discuss the strategy for building a global alliance to defeat ISIL.

In August 2017, McGurk stated that the Trump administration had "dramatically accelerated" the U.S.–led campaign against ISIL, citing estimates that almost one-third of the territory taken from ISIL "has been won in the last six months."

McGurk favorably cited "steps President Trump has taken, including delegating decision–making authority from the White House to commanders in the field."

McGurk had been slated to leave the post in mid-February 2019, but announced his resignation in December following Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria.