Jonathan Panikoff

Guest Author

Jonathan Panikoff (@jpanikoff) is the director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative and a Senior Fellow in the Geoeconomics Center. A former career US intelligence officer, Panikoff served as the deputy national intelligence officer for the Near East at the National Intelligence Council (NIC) from 2015 to 2020, representing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) at the assistant secretary-level and overseeing the Intelligence Community’s (IC) coordinated analysis on Middle East issues. Following his tenure on the NIC, Panikoff led the IC’s analytic support to the 2020 US presidential transition. He then served as Director of ODNI’s Investment Security Group, leading the IC’s support for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and Team Telecom issues, as well as the development of foreign allies’ investment review regimes.

Earlier in his career, Panikoff served as Executive Officer to the Deputy DNI—including preparing him daily to deliver the Presidential Daily Brief; led analysis on a variety of Middle East and counterterrorism issues at the Defense Intelligence Agency; and was an adviser at a consultancy specializing in foreign corporate due diligence and risk avoidance.

Panikoff holds a JD and MA in international relations from Syracuse University, and a BA in international affairs and political science from The George Washington University. He is admitted to the bar in both New York and Connecticut. Panikoff is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also on LinkedIn. 

The views expressed are the author’s and do not imply endorsement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the intelligence community, or any other U.S. government agency.