David Wurmser is a Swiss-born American neoconservative foreign policy specialist, strategist, and policy analyst known for his expertise on Middle East issues. He gained prominence during the George W. Bush administration as a key advisor and architect of Middle East strategy, serving as special assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney for National Security Affairs—a role in which he was the former Middle East advisor to the Vice President—and as a senior advisor and special assistant to Undersecretary of State John Bolton at the U.S. State Department. He advised on U.S. foreign policy toward Iraq and Israel, advocating for U.S. support of Israeli security interests, democracy promotion, strong U.S. intervention in the region, regime change in Iraq, and a harder stance against Syria and Iran. He was instrumental in shaping intelligence and policy narratives leading to the 2003 Iraq War, including alleged links between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. He is the principal author and a co-participant in the influential 1996 'A Clean Break' study group that produced the report advocating for a strategic shift in Israeli policy toward regime change in Iraq and containment of Iran, and a co-author of other reports on these themes, having been a co-author and collaborator on neoconservative strategic documents during the mid-1990s. Previously, he worked as a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), directed the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS) as Director of Strategy and Middle East Studies, and held roles at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He has also been a former advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and has been involved with U.S. Middle East policy think tanks, including associations with the Project for the New American Century and other neoconservative initiatives. Wurmser served in the U.S. Navy Reserve as an intelligence officer, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In recent years, he has continued to influence policy as a consultant for the National Security Council under the Trump administration, a senior scholar at the Center for Security Policy, and the founder of the Delphi Global Analysis Group, a consultancy focused on geopolitical risk. He has consistently argued for a 'rollback' strategy against adversarial regimes in the Middle East and the strengthening of U.S.-Israel strategic ties, though he has faced criticism for his role in promoting policies leading to the Iraq War. Personally, he is married to Meyrav Wurmser, co-founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), with whom he shares a background in pro-Israel advocacy. He has a brother named Daniel.