Michael Ratney:A New Saudi Arabia in a Volatile Region

Biography

Michael Ratney served for over three decades as a distinguished U.S. diplomat and has been at the center of high-profile diplomatic initiatives throughout the Middle East. Prior to serving as U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (2023-2025), Ratney served as the U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem and as the Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy to Israel where he was responsible for conduct of U.S. diplomacy with Israel as well as diplomatic engagement with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.  From 2015 to 2017, he served as the U.S. Special Envoy for Syria where he was responsible for U.S. relations with Syrian opposition and led diplomatic engagements in Syra with partners in Europe and the Middle East, as well as ceasefire negotiations with Russia.  Other assignments included serving as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Doha, Qatar as well as tours in in Baghdad, Beirut, Casablanca, Mexico City, Tunis, Bridgetown, and Washington DC.  

He taught leadership on the faculty of the National Defense University in Washington, and was Dean of the State Department’s School of Language Studies.  Micheal Ratney speaks Arabic and French.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy and serves on the Board of Governors of the Middle East Institute and on the Board of Directors of AMIDEAST.  He is currently a Distinguished Fellow with the Israel Policy Forum and a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  He earned a B.S. degree from Boston University and a M.A. from George Washington University.  

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