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, and is currently the Deputy Assistant to President Joe Biden and the National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, in the Biden administration.
He was the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. He was appointed to this post by Obama in October 2015 and was retained in that role by the Trump administration until 2018. 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.
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.
Early life and education
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 Bachelor of Arts from the University of Connecticut Honors Program in 1996, and his Juris Doctor 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 served three clerkships in the federal judiciary: for Judge Gerard E. Lynch on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York; for 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.
Career
Diplomacy
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).