Philip H. Gordon

Philip H. Gordon (born 1962) is an American diplomat and international relations scholar. From March 21, 2022 to January 20, 2025 he served as Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris. Earlier in his career, he was Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (2009–2011) and Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf Region (2013–2015) during the Obama administration.^[1][2]

Phil Gordon
National Security Advisor to the Vice President
In office March 21, 2022 – January 20, 2025
Vice President	Kamala Harris
Preceded by	Nancy McEldowney
Succeeded by	Andy Baker
24th Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
In office May 15, 2009 – March 11, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Daniel Fried
Succeeded by	Victoria Nuland
Personal details
Born	1962 (age 62–63)
Political party	Democratic
Education	Ohio University (BA) Johns Hopkins University (MA, PhD)

Education

Gordon received a B.A. from Ohio University in 1984, a M.A. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 1987 and 1991, respectively.^[3]

Career

Teaching career

Gordon held a number of research and teaching positions, including at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.; the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London; INSEAD, the global graduate business school in Fontainebleau; the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (“Sciences Po”) in Paris; and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik in Bonn.^[3]

Clinton administration

From 1998 to 1999, he served as the Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton.^[3]

Gordon was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution was 1999 to 2009, focusing his scholarship on Turkey, Iraq, and U.S.-Europe relations. He co-authored five books on France, Turkey, Iraq, and the Middle East.^[4]

Obama administration

President Barack Obama with advisors, including Gordon (second from right), on September 21, 2011.

Gordon was a senior foreign policy advisor for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.^[4]

In the Obama administration, Gordon served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from May 2009 to March 2013.^[3]

On March 11, 2013, Gordon was appointed Special Assistant to the President and Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region at the NSC.^[3] According to the Daily Beast, Gordon did not have much experience with the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, but was appointed due to his experience in the federal bureaucracy.^[4]

Council on Foreign Relations

After he stepped down from the Obama administration, Gordon was one of the biggest boosters of the Iran nuclear deal. He has been described as associated with the progressive wing of the national security continuum.^[5]

Between the Obama and Biden administrations, Gordon worked as the Mary and David Boies senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he focused on U.S. foreign policy, the Middle East, and Europe. He was also a Senior Adviser at Albright Stonebridge Group.^[6]

He joined the Council on Foreign Relations in April 2015 as a senior fellow focused on U.S. foreign and national security policy; U.S. policy in the Middle East; Israeli-Palestinian issues; Middle East regional issues; Europe and the EU; Russia; Turkey; nuclear weapons; intelligence; terrorism; and international economics.^[7]

Biden administration

During the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Gordon was a foreign policy advisor to Kamala Harris' campaign.^[5]

At the start of the Biden Administration, Gordon was named Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Harris.^[2] On March 21, 2022, Gordon succeeded Nancy McEldowney as National Security Advisor to the Vice President.^[8][9] During the Israel-Hamas war, Gordon took a high-profile trip to Israel and the West Bank, meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.^[5]

In August 2024, Gordon said that Kamala Harris did not support an arms embargo on Israel.^[10]

Publications

Gordon has published articles in The New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, the Atlantic, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Le Monde, and elsewhere.

He has also authored several books, including:

• Losing the Long Game: The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle East, 2020
• Winning the Right War: The Path to Security for America and the World, 2008
• Winning Turkey: How America, Europe, And Turkey Can Revive A Fading Partnership (with Omer Taspinar), 2008
• History Strikes Back: How States, Nations, And Conflicts Are Shaping The Twenty-first Century, ed., (with Hubert Vedrine and Madeleine Albright), 2008
• Crescent of Crisis: US-European Strategy for the Middle East, ed., (with Ivo Daalder and Nicole Gnesotto), 2006
• Allies at War: The United States, Europe, and the Crisis Over Iraq (with Jeremy Shapiro), 2004
• The French Challenge: Adapting to Globalization (with Sophie Meunier), 2001
• Cold War Statesmen Confront the Bomb, ed. (with John Lewis Gaddis, Ernest R. May and Jonathan Rosenberg), 1999
• NATO's Transformation, ed., 1997
• France, Germany and the Western Alliance, 1995
• A Certain Idea of France, 1993

He has also translated two books: Nicolas Sarkozy's Testimony: France, Europe, and the World in the Twenty-First Century, 2007, and Hubert Vedrine's France in the Age of Globalization, 2001.