Brett H McGurk

Early life and education

McGurk was born to Barry McGurk, an English professor, and Carol Ann Capobianco, an art teacher, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on 20 April 1973. His family later moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, where he graduated from Conard High School in 1991. McGurk received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Connecticut Honors Program in 1996, and his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 1999. While at Columbia, he was a Senior Editor of the Columbia Law Review, a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and won the prize for best written brief in Columbia Law School's Moot Court Honors Competition.

After graduation, McGurk served three consecutive clerkships at progressively higher levels of the federal judiciary: first, for Judge Gerard E. Lynch on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York; second, for Judge Dennis Jacobs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Manhattan); and, finally, for Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court. Following his clerkships, McGurk served briefly as appellate litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis as well as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Diplomatic career

In January 2004, McGurk returned to public service as a Legal Advisor to both the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and the United States Ambassador in Baghdad. During his tenure in Baghdad, McGurk helped draft Iraq's interim constitution, the Transitional Administrative Law, and oversaw the legal transition from the CPA to an Interim Iraqi Government led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. In 2005, he was transferred to the National Security Council, where he served as Director for Iraq, and later as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2006, McGurk became an early advocate for a fundamental change in Iraq policy and helped develop what is now known as the surge, which began in January 2007. In his book Decision Points, President George W. Bush refers to McGurk as part of his "personal band of warriors" that led to a new strategy and reset the trajectory of the war. President Bush later asked McGurk to lead negotiations with Ambassador Ryan Crocker to establish a Strategic Framework Agreement and Security Agreement with the Government of Iraq, thereby ensuring continuity in policy beyond the end of his administration. In 2009, McGurk became one of only three political appointees to survive the transition from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, serving as a Senior Advisor to both the President and the United States Ambassador to Iraq.

For his efforts in Iraq, McGurk was bestowed the Distinguished Honor Award and the Superior Honor Award by the U.S. Department of State. He was also given the Outstanding Service Award and the Joint Service Commendation Award by the U.S. National Security Council.

McGurk left government service in the fall of 2009 and served as a Resident Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics, hosting a study group on "Highest Level (and Highest Stakes) Deliberations". He also served as an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has also been a frequent commentator on several news outlets. He was called back into public service twice, first in the summer of 2010 after a deadlock over formation of a new Iraqi government, and later in the summer of 2011, following a deadlock in negotiations with the Government of Iraq to extend the Security Agreement that had been successfully concluded in 2008.

In August 2013, he was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department.

In November 2013, and again in February 2014, McGurk testified before the House Armed Services Committee about the emerging threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). He is credited with being one of the first U.S. officials to warn about the rising threat of ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

On June 9, 2014, McGurk was in Erbil, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, when ISIL overran the city of Mosul and approached Baghdad. He later flew to Baghdad and helped oversee the evacuation of 1,500 U.S. employees from the U.S. Embassy, while working with President Barack Obama and the National Security Council to develop the U.S. diplomatic and military response to the ISIL threat. McGurk would ultimately play a leading role in facilitating the establishment of a new Government of Iraq, led by Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, and removing Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, who had served as Prime Minister over the past eight years.

On September 13, 2014, Secretary John Kerry announced McGurk's appointment as Ambassador and Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. Three days later, Ambassador McGurk met in the Oval Office with President Barack Obama and retired Marine Corps General John Allen, Special Presidential Envoy, to discuss the strategy for building a global alliance to defeat ISIL. On December 3, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium, a formal alliance of 62 nations was formed to support Iraq and help the new government under Prime Minister Abadi fight ISIL along five military and diplomatic lines of effort.

In his role as Special Presidential Envoy, McGurk has worked to organize a global coalition of nations as well as coalitions on the ground in Iraq and Syria to help eject ISIL from its strongholds. He was intimately involved, for example, in negotiating agreements between Arabs and Kurds to prepare for the liberation of Mosul. He also helped lead negotiations with Turkey to open Incirlik airbase for counter-ISIL missions, and prepare the historic defense of Kobani in Syria by negotiating with Turkey to permit the Kurdish Peshmerga to enter the besieged city through Turkish territory. McGurk has since visited the battlefields of Kobani where he met officials from the Kurdish Democratic Union Part (PYD) and its People's Protection Units (YPG),as well as the front lines in Mosul to meet with Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish Pershmerga prior to an offensive to secure the eastern side of the city. He met with former PKK members in Kobene and took a plaque from them. He has also helped rally the global coalition for military and financial contributions to support major counter-ISIL operations in Iraq and Syria, with emphasis on post-conflict stabilization and returning the displaced to their homes. In August 2017, McGurk stated that the Trump administration had "dramatically accelerated" the U.S.–led campaign against ISIL, citing estimates that almost one-third of the territory taken from ISIL "has been won in the last six months." McGurk favorably cited "steps President Trump has taken, including delegating decision–making authority from the White House to commanders in the field."

From October 2014 to January 2016, he was lead negotiator over fourteen months of intensive and secret negotiations with Iran that led to a prisoner swap and the return home of four Americans, including Jason Rezain, Amir Hekmati, and Saeed Abedini.

Ambassadorial nomination

On 26 March 2012, McGurk was nominated to become the next United States Ambassador to Iraq, succeeding James F. Jeffrey. However, McGurk's confirmation hearings soon became embroiled in controversy after a series of his emails were leaked to the press and published on Cryptome. Speculation remains as to who was responsible for the leak. The illicit emails were exchanged with Gina Chon, then a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Critics claim that the extramarital affair cast doubt on his ability to lead and manage the embassy, while supporters argue that it was at most a momentary lapse in judgement and that McGurk and Chon were a married couple when the series of emails from five years earlier leaked.

Chon was later accused of sharing articles with McGurk before publication, and was forced to resign from the newspaper. McGurk and Chon married in 2012, after McGurk's amicable divorce from his previous wife, Caroline Wong.

On 18 June 2012, McGurk submitted a letter to President Obama and withdrew himself from further consideration. “While we regret to see Brett withdraw his candidacy”, Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said in a statement later that day, “there is no doubt that he will be called on again to serve the country.” The position eventually went to Robert S. Beecroft.