Jordan Tama

About Jordan Tama

Jordan Tama is a nonresident senior fellow of public opinion and foreign policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He’s a professor in the Department of Foreign Policy and Global Security at American University and a principal at Bridging the Gap.

Tama’s research examines the politics and process of US foreign policy, including public and elite opinion, the role of Congress, partisan polarization and bipartisanship, the use of economic sanctions, and national security strategy. His publications include five books: Bipartisanship and US Foreign Policy: Cooperation in a Polarized Age; Polarization and US Foreign Policy: When Politics Crosses the Water’s Edge (co-edited with Gordon Friedrichs); Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations, Sixth Edition (co-edited with James A. Thurber); Terrorism and National Security Reform: How Commissions Can Drive Change During Crises; and A Creative Tension: The Foreign Policy Roles of the President and Congress (co-authored with Lee H. Hamilton). He has also authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, policy reports, and articles in major newspapers and policy magazines.

Tama’s work has been supported by the American Political Science Association, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, IBM Center for the Business of Government, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, National Science Foundation, Raymond Frankel Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and Woodrow Wilson Center.

Tama has served as a senior foreign policy aide in the US House of Representatives, a foreign policy speechwriter, and a counterterrorism and intelligence policy advisor on Barack Obama's first presidential campaign. He has also served as president of the National Capital Area Political Science Association and has been selected as a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the Truman National Security Project.

Tama received a BA in history from Williams College and an MA and PhD from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.