Middle East Policy Lecture by Ambassador Barbara Leaf, U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from 2014-18

Middle East Policy Lecture by Barbara A. Leaf, the U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from 2014-2018, is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute. Before arriving in Abu Dhabi in 2014, she served as deputy assistant secretary of state for the Arabian Peninsula in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and as deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq; directed the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team in Basrah, Iraq; and served as the department’s first director of the Office of Iranian Affairs. Previously, she had postings in Rome, Sarajevo, Paris, Cairo, Tunis, Jerusalem, and Port-au-Prince. Ambassador Leaf has received numerous Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor Awards throughout her career. She speaks Arabic, French, Italian, and Serbo-Croatian.