Gary Samore
American arms-control official; White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, 2009–2013; president of United Against Nuclear Iran, as listed in 2026
| Gary Samore
| |
|---|---|
| Image |  Samore in December 2009, in a crop of an official White House photograph |
| Occupation | Arms-control official; president, United Against Nuclear Iran (as listed, 2026); director, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University |
| Known for | White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction under President Obama, 2009–2013; president of United Against Nuclear Iran |
| Education | M.A. and Ph.D. in government, Harvard University (1984) |
| Website | https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/about/leadership/gary-samore |
Gary Samore is an American arms-control official and academic. The leadership page of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), retrieved on 11 November 2026, lists him as the organisation's president. The same date's biography at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs describes him as a senior fellow with the Managing the Atom project, as director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and professor of the practice of politics at Brandeis University, and as former executive director for research at the Belfer Center.[1][2]
Education and early career
The Belfer and UANI biographies say that Samore was a National Science Foundation Fellow at Harvard University, where he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in government in 1984, and that while at Harvard he was a pre-doctoral fellow at what was then the Harvard Center for Science and International Affairs, later the Belfer Center. Before joining the State Department he worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Rand Corporation.[1][2]
Government service
After work on non-proliferation at the State Department, Samore was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Nonproliferation and Export Controls in the Clinton administration. The Belfer Center dates that National Security Council post from 1995 to 2000. In 1995 he received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service for his role in negotiating the 1994 North Korea nuclear agreement.[1][2]
From 2009 to 2013 he served as President Barack Obama's White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction. The UANI and Belfer biographies say he was the principal adviser to the president on arms control and on the prevention of weapons-of-mass-destruction proliferation and WMD terrorism, and that he was the US sherpa for the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., and the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul. UANI's September 2013 announcement of his presidency used a slightly different title, "Coordinator for WMD Counter-Terrorism and Arms Control", and described the White House post as having lasted four years.[1][2][3]
| Period | Position | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Before the State Department | Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Rand Corporation | UANI; Belfer Center[1][2] |
| State Department, then 1995–2000 | Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Nonproliferation and Export Controls, National Security Council (Clinton administration) | Belfer Center (dates); UANI (title)[2][1] |
| 2001–2005 | Director of studies and senior fellow for non-proliferation, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London | UANI; Belfer Center[1][2] |
| After IISS, before 2006 | Vice president for global security and sustainability, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago | UANI; Belfer Center[1][2] |
| 2006–2009 | Vice president for studies, Council on Foreign Relations, New York (Maurice R. Greenberg chair; director, David Rockefeller Studies Program) | UANI; Belfer Center[1][2] |
| 2009–2013 | White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction (Obama administration) | UANI; Belfer Center; UANI announcement of 23 September 2013[1][2][3] |
| From 23 September 2013 | President, United Against Nuclear Iran (the UANI leadership page still listed him in that post on 11 November 2026) | UANI announcement; UANI leadership page[3][1] |
| As listed, 11 November 2026 | Director, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, and professor of the practice of politics, Brandeis University; senior fellow, Belfer Center (former executive director for research) | Belfer Center[2] |
Research institutes and United Against Nuclear Iran
Between government posts, according to the same biographies, Samore was director of studies and senior fellow for non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London from 2001 to 2005, where he produced IISS "strategic dossiers" on Iraq (2002), North Korea (2004) and Iran (2005); vice president for global security and sustainability at the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago; and, from 2006 to 2009, vice president for studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, where he held the Maurice R. Greenberg chair and directed the David Rockefeller Studies Program.[1][2]
On 23 September 2013 UANI announced that Samore, "who recently served four years as President Obama's Coordinator for WMD Counter-Terrorism and Arms Control", had accepted the position of UANI president. The announcement, quoting UANI chief executive Mark D. Wallace, said Samore had served on UANI's advisory board at the organisation's inception in 2008. At the time of the announcement he was executive director for research at the Belfer Center.[3]
UANI's leadership page still listed him as president when it was retrieved on 11 November 2026. That page also still describes the Belfer research-director post in the present tense. The Belfer Center's own page on the same date lists him as a senior fellow (official titles include senior fellow, Korea Project, and affiliate of the Project on Managing the Atom) and as "Former Executive Director for Research", and states that he is director of the Crown Center and professor of the practice of politics at Brandeis. This page follows the Belfer Center for the academic titles and records UANI's own leadership page for the UANI presidency, without treating the stale Belfer title on the UANI page as current.[1][2]
External links
- United Against Nuclear Iran, leadership biography
- Belfer Center, Gary Samore
- UANI announcement, 23 September 2013
Notes
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 United Against Nuclear Iran, Gary Samore, leadership biography, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Gary Samore, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 United Against Nuclear Iran, UANI Announces Dr. Gary Samore as New President, 23 September 2013, accessed 11 November 2026.