Richard Nephew

Richard Nephew is a nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program and affiliated with the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative housed within the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence. He is also a senior research scholar and program director at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. His present research is focused on the use of sanctions for deterrence and impact on present U.S. foreign policy challenges.

He is the author of “The Art of Sanctions,” a book released by Columbia University Press in 2018. In it, Nephew offers a much-needed practical framework for planning and applying sanctions that focuses not just on the initial sanctions strategy but also, crucially, on how to calibrate along the way and how to decide when the sanctions have achieved maximum effectiveness.

The book is particularly informed by his experience working for the U.S. government in a variety of capacities.

From 2013 to 2015, Nephew served as the principal deputy for inaugural Coordinator for Sanctions Policy Dan Fried at the U.S. State Department. In this capacity, Nephew advised Coordinator Fried and other senior State Department officials on a range of sanctions policy issues, including those involving Russia, North Korea, Libya, Syria, and the Islamic State. Nephew also assisted with the development of sanctions strategies to manage challenges as diverse as human rights, terrorism, nonproliferation, regional stability, and cybersecurity.

During this period, Nephew also served as the lead sanctions expert for the U.S. team negotiating with Iran from August 2013 to December 2014.

From 2011 to 2013, Nephew was a director for Iran at the National Security Council (NSC), where he was responsible for the development and execution of the U.S. sanctions strategy toward Iran, as well as for the nuclear negotiations. While at the NSC, Nephew supervised a dramatic expansion of U.S. and foreign sanctions against Iran, including through the development and implementation of six new executive orders signed by President Obama during Nephew’s tenure.

From 2006 to 2011, Nephew served in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation at the Department of State, first as the senior Iran nuclear officer and, as of 2008, as the Middle East team chief. In this capacity, Nephew was developed both the U.S. approach to negotiations with Iran as well as the U.S. sanctions strategy at the U.N. Security Council. He was part of the teams that developed and negotiated U.N. Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) 1737, 1747, 1803, and 1929.

From 2003 to 2006, Nephew served at the Department of Energy (DOE), first as a nonproliferation graduate fellow from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and, after 2004, as a special assistant for nonproliferation policy. While at DOE, Nephew participated in the dismantlement of Libya’s nuclear weapons program, as well as policymaking for addressing U.S. interests with respect to Iran, North Korea, India, and the broader nonproliferation regime.

Nephew is the recipient of several awards from the U.S. Departments of State and Energy, including the Secretary of State’s Award for Excellence in International Security in 2010 for his work on UNSCR 1929.

Nephew received his master’s degree in security policy studies from George Washington University in 2004. He received his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from George Washington University in 2002.

Outside of his Brookings work, Richard is currently exclusively advising the Biden campaign for President.

EDUCATION

• M.A., Security Policy Studies, George Washington University, 2004
• B.A., International Affairs, George Washington University, 2002