Rosemary Kelanic - Defense Priorities

Middle East, Diplomacy, Economics and trade, Energy security, Grand strategy, International security, Israel-Hamas, and Syria

Rosemary Kelanic

Director, Middle East Program

Defense Priorities

Rosemary Kelanic is director of the Middle East Program at Defense Priorities.

Kelanic publishes widely on energy security, great power politics, and U.S. grand strategy in the Middle East. Her work has appeared in outlets ranging from Foreign Affairs and Security Studies to The Washington Post and The National Interest. Kelanic’s book, Black Gold and Blackmail: Oil and Great Power Politics (Cornell University Press, 2020), explains the differences in energy security strategies that great powers adopt, while her edited volume (with Charles L. Glaser), Crude Strategy: Rethinking the U.S. Military Commitment to Defend Persian Gulf Oil (Georgetown University Press, 2016), urges a reappraisal of U.S. engagement in the region. Kelanic spent 10 years teaching political science at the University of Notre Dame and Williams College prior to entering the policy world. She earned her PhD in political science from the University of Chicago and her BA, summa cum laude, from Bryn Mawr College.

Press ReleaseSyria, Basing and force posture, Middle East

In Syria, pair sanctions relief with a troop withdrawal

By Rosemary Kelanic

May 14, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 14, 2025 Contact: press@defensepriorities.org WASHINGTON, DC—Yesterday, President Trump announced that the U.S. will lift sanctions on […]

op-edMiddle East, China, Iran, Syria