Former Pentagon Official Grant Rumley Joins Washington Institute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Grant Rumley, a Pentagon Middle East policy advisor in both the Trump and Biden administrations, has joined The Washington Institute as a senior fellow focusing on military and security affairs.
“We are thrilled that Grant has joined us,” said Institute Executive Director Robert Satloff. “He brings both analytical depth and practical policymaking experience to his position.”
Rumley served as an advisor for Middle East policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, from 2018 to 2021.
In that capacity, he served in multiple roles, including as deputy chief of staff, Syria director, Jordan director, and Israel director, supporting senior Pentagon leadership on key defense issues across the Middle East.
Grant was a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies before joining the Pentagon, where his research focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is the co-author of The Last Palestinian: The Rise and Reign of Mahmoud Abbas (Prometheus, 2017), the first English-language biography of the Palestinian leader. Previously, Grant was a visiting fellow at Mitvim: the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies.
Rumley has an MA in Middle East studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a BA in International Relations from Michigan State University, and has studied at the University of Alexandria, Egypt.