Dr. Martin S. Indyk is a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he was the John C. Whitehead Distinguished Fellow in International Diplomacy in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. From 2015 to 2018, he served as executive vice president of Brookings. Dr. Indyk served as the U.S. special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from July 2013 to June 2014. Prior to his time as special envoy, he was vice president and director of the Foreign Policy program and a senior fellow and the founding director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings. Dr. Indyk served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2000 to 2001, and is known as the framer of the U.S. policy of dual containment, which sought to contain Iraq and Iran, the United States' two most important strategic adversaries at the time. He also served as special assistant to President Bill Clinton and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council (1993–95), and as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in the U.S. Department of State (1997–2000).