About
Exploring the Middle East and South Asia through their media, MEMRI bridges the language gap between the West and the Middle East and South Asia, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, Urdu-Pashtu, Dari, Turkish, Russian, and Chinese media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends. Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization. MEMRI's main office is located in Washington, DC, with branch offices in various world capitals. MEMRI research is translated into English, French, Polish, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Hebrew. For an overview of the reach of MEMRI's research, click here.
Leadership
The MEMRI Board of Advisors and Board of Directors include distinguished figures from government, media, law and academia from around the world. Among them are former prime ministers, attorneys-generals, justice ministers, legal and counterterrorism experts, and recipients of the most prestigious awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal. Members of the MEMRI Board of Advisors are bipartisan and have honorably served Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.
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Board of Advisors
Marine Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Vincent Stewart
Chairman of MEMRI's Board of Advisors, former Deputy Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
GEN (Ret.) Michael V. Hayden
Four-star Air Force general, former NSA Director and CIA Director.
GEN (Ret.) Keith Alexander
Founder and CEO of IronNet Cybersecurity, four-star Army general, first commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, and former NSA Director and Central Security Service Chief.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Former U.S. Representative (R-FL) sworn in in September 1989 and retiring in January 2019, and previously a Florida State Senator and Florida State Representative. In Congress, she chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee and its Subcommittee on The Middle East and North Africa, and was a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
James Woolsey
Former Director of Central Intelligence Agency and Under-Secretary of the Navy.
Jose Maria Aznar
Former Prime Minister of Spain.
BRIG. GEN. (RET.) GUY "TOM" COSENTINO
Chief Operating Officer at Business Executives for National Security (BENS); former U.S. Army Deputy Director for Political and Military Affairs; Deputy Commanding General for Regional Support, NATO Training Mission Afghanistan; Chief of Strategy, Plans, and Assessments for the Multi-National Security Transition Command in Iraq; and 28th Commandant of the National War College.
Ehud Barak
Former Prime Minister of Israel.
Natan Sharansky
Rights activist and former Israeli cabinet minister.
Irwin Cotler
Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.
Peter Hoekstra
Ambassador to the Netherlands, former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and 9-term member of U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan.
John Ashcroft
Former US Attorney General and U.S. Senator (MO).
Paul Bremer
Former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
Stuart Eizenstat
Former Ambassador to the European Union.
William John Bennett
Former Secretary of Education.
Imam Hassen Chalghoumi
French-Tunisian Imam of the Drancy mosque, Paris.
Stephen J. Trachtenberg
President Emeritus and University Professor of Public Service at George Washington University.
Ambassador Adrienne S. O'Neal
Former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Cape Verde, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal, and Consul General in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who held key positions in U.S. Bureau of Human Resources, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, and Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department.
Christopher DeMuth
Former President of the American Enterprise Institute.
Norman Podhoretz
Former editor-in-chief of Commentary Magazine.
Josef Joffe
Publisher-editor of Die Zeit.
Katrina Lantos Swett
President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Dorothy Denning
Distinguished Professor of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School.
John Poindexter
Former National Security Advisor and retired U.S. Navy Admiral
Chin Ho Lee
Former FBI Special Agent and Senior Executive of the Hyundai Corporation.
M.K. Narayanan
Former Director of India's Intelligence Bureau, former Indian National Security Advisor and Special Advisor to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Judge Ted Poe
Juris Doctor and Former Representative of Texas’s 2nd Congressional District, Serving on Committee on Foreign Affairs and Committee on the Judiciary, and as Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.
Anne Speckhard
Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University in the School of Medicine and of Security Studies in the School of Foreign Service.
Rohan Gunaratna
Professor of Security Studies at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technology University, and Head of International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, Singapore.
Amb. Husain Haqqani
Former Pakistan Ambassador to the U.S., author, and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute.
Father Patrick Desbois
Head of the French Episcopal Committee for Relations with Judaism, advisor to the Vatican, and president of Yahad-In Unum.
Deborah Lipstadt
Historian, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University.
Dr. Khaleel Mohammed
Professor of Religion at San Diego State University (SDSU) and faculty member of SDSU Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies.
Alan Dershowitz
Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Harvard Law School, and author of numerous bestselling books.
Dr. Elham Manea
Associate Professor, Institute for Political Science, University of Zurich, and Co-Chair of the Inclusive Mosque Initiative (Swiss Branch)
Yehuda Bauer
Former Director of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem.
Bud McFarlane
Chairman of McFarlane Associates, former National Security Advisor, and retired Marine Corps officer
Magdi Khalil
Human rights activist, Executive Editor of the Egyptian weekly Watani International, and founder of Coptic Solidarity.
Dame Louise Ellman DBE
Former Labour and Co-operative MP for Liverpool Riverside from 1997-2019.