Martin Indyk moves up at Brookings

The Brookings Institution announced Friday that former Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk (at right with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert) will become vice president and director of foreign studies, taking over for Carlos Pascual, who was recently appointed as President Obama's ambassador to Mexico.

Indyk was the founding director of Brookings's Saban Center for Middle East Studies, which will now be headed up by senior fellow and former CIA intelligence analyst Kenneth Pollack.

Indyk has worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and also headed up its related think tank the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He was a top negotiator in the Camp David talks.

Brookings also announced that Senior Fellow Michael O'Hanlon will become director of research.

UPDATE: Indyk e-mails in response to a query about his new role:

I'm very fortunate to inherit an amazing team of first class research scholars in the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings. It's also a propitious time to engage in the foreign policy debate given Brookings' cachet in Washington these days. I'm excited by the challenge of organizing our scholars to maximize our influence in that debate through what we do best: independent, in-depth, policy-relevant research."

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