Biden team picks Dana Stroul to lead Pentagon's Middle East desk
Stroul, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, will join a roster of Obama-era veterans when she returns to the Pentagon.
Dana Stroul is set to become the Pentagon’s senior policy official solely focused on the Middle East for the Joe Biden administration, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Al-Monitor.
Stroul, an Obama-era veteran of the office she has been selected to lead, co-chaired the Syria Study Group set up by Congress while she was a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Stroul previously worked on the US drawdown from Iraq and the Obama administration’s ties with Egypt amid the Arab Spring while at the Defense Department until 2013, and later joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a lead staffer with responsibility for the region.
She has earned high praise from colleagues, including former Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for the Middle East Michael Mulroy, who called Stroul an “excellent choice” for the role in a statement to Al-Monitor. Mulroy added that she has “the depth of knowledge and the key relationships needed to succeed” in the position.
