Robert Greenway is the Director of the Allison Center for National Defense at The Heritage Foundation, where he is responsible for the development of policies which promote a strong national defense safeguarding American freedom and prosperity. He previously served as President and Executive Director of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute. Mr. Greenway has more than 30 years of experience in public service, culminating as the senior U.S. government official responsible for developing, coordinating and implementing U.S. government policy for all of the Middle East and North Africa on the National Security Council. Prior to service on the NSC, he served as a Senior Intelligence Officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, and a combat veteran of the United States Army Special Forces. 

While Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the National Security Council’s Middle Eastern and North African Affairs Directorate, he planned and executed the United States’ most significant economic sanctions since the Cold War as part of a broad strategy for Iran. He was a principal architect of the historic Abraham Accords, the most significant diplomatic breakthrough in Middle East peace since 1994. He personally supervised the development of the first-ever presidentially approved strategies for Iran, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon and Israel, and was instrumental in the removal of the world’s most dangerous terrorist leaders. He coordinated the implementation of a comprehensive strategy to defeat ISIS, resulting in the liberation of the 20,000 square miles of territory it controlled, and the elimination of its leadership in Syria and Iraq. 

Before being assigned to the NSC he served at the Defense Intelligence Agency as a Senior Intelligence Officer in U.S. Central Command. Mr. Greenway retired from active duty prior to joining the DIA having commanded Special Forces units at every level from Team through Battalion. He holds a master’s degree with Honors from Webster University and a bachelor’s degree from the Virginia Military Institute.