Steven Simon is a diplo­mat, pol­i­cy­mak­er, and writer. Now at Dart­mouth Col­lege, he pre­vi­ous­ly served as a senior direc­tor for Mid­dle East­ern and North African affairs at the White House, advis­ing Pres­i­dent Oba­ma dur­ing a dif­fi­cult peri­od in US-Israeli rela­tions and amid the upheavals of the Arab Spring. In the Clin­ton Admin­is­tra­tion, he was senior direc­tor for counterterrorism.