Elliott Abrams

Elliott Abrams is an American foreign policy specialist and senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he focuses on U.S. policy toward the Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian relations, and democracy promotion. Throughout his career, Abrams has served in senior roles across three Republican administrations, including as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, and Inter-American Affairs during the Reagan presidency from 1981 to 1989; as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Operations at the National Security Council, later promoted to Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009; and as Special Representative for Venezuela in 2019 and for Iran and Venezuela in 2020 under Donald Trump. Abrams' work has emphasized advancing democracy and human rights as core components of U.S. foreign policy, particularly in challenging authoritarian regimes in Latin America and the Middle East, though his involvement in the Reagan-era Iran-Contra affair—where he encouraged third-country funding for Nicaraguan Contras and withheld related information from Congress—resulted in guilty pleas to two misdemeanor counts in 1991, followed by a presidential pardon from George H.W. Bush.

Elliott Abrams was born on January 24, 1948, in New York City to a Jewish family of modest professional means. His father worked as an immigration lawyer, representing clients whose primary aspiration was full assimilation into American society, which instilled in Abrams an early appreciation for patriotic integration over foreign allegiances. His mother served as a public school teacher, contributing to a household environment shaped by public service and education.

Abrams was raised in a kosher Jewish home in Hollis Hills, Queens, and maintains an observant Jewish practice throughout his career. In his 1997 book Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in a Christian America, he contends that American Jews must deepen religious commitment and communal ties to counter assimilation and secularism, arguing that faith provides essential resilience against cultural dilution.

His 2024 book If You Will It: Rebuilding American Jewry extends this outlook, diagnosing declining Jewish identification—evidenced by intermarriage rates exceeding 50% among non-Orthodox Jews and weakening institutional affiliations—as a crisis requiring proactive renewal. Abrams prescribes accessible day schools, summer camps, and Israel experiences to foster peoplehood, drawing on Zionist principles that tie Jewish survival to both spiritual covenant and national refuge. He emphasizes Orthodox models of observance as a benchmark for success, while critiquing liberal denominations for eroding distinctiveness.