Gary Samore

Gary Samore is vice president, director of studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg chair at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is an expert on nuclear proliferation and arms control, especially in the Middle East and Asia.

Before joining CFR, Dr. Samore was vice president for global security and sustainability at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where he was responsible for international grant-making. From 2001 to 2005, he was director of studies and senior fellow for nonproliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Dr. Samore served at the National Security Council from 1995 to 2001. He began his career there as the director for nonproliferation and export controls and then became the special assistant to the president and senior director for nonproliferation and export controls. As a senior White House official at the National Security Council, he was responsible for formulating and coordinating U.S. policy to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and missile delivery systems.

Before his career led him to the National Security Council, Dr. Samore spent seventeen years working at the Department of State, where he served as special assistant to the ambassador-at-large for nonproliferation and nuclear energy policy. He later served as the acting director and deputy director at the Office of Regional Nonproliferation, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, and then as the deputy to Ambassador-at-Large Robert Gallucci.

Dr. Samore has edited three “strategic dossiers” published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies: Iran’s Strategic Weapons Programmes: A Net Assessment (2005); North Korea’s Weapons Programmes: A Net Assessment (2004); and Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Net Assessment (2002). He has also authored or coauthored numerous works, the most recent of which include, “The Korean Nuclear Crisis,” in Survival (2003); “Ending Russian Assistance to Iran’s Nuclear Bomb,” in Survival (coauthored, 2002); and, “Iraq,” in Nuclear Proliferation After the Cold War (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1994).

Dr. Samore holds a BA in sociology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and an MA and PhD in government from Harvard University.