Martin S. Indyk is distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he was the John C. Whitehead Distinguished Fellow in International Diplomacy in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. From February 2015 to March 2018, he served as executive vice president of the Brookings Institution. On July 1, 2014, Indyk returned to Brookings after serving as the U.S. special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from July 2013 to June 2014. Previously, Indyk was vice president and director of the Foreign Policy program and a senior fellow and the founding director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings.

Indyk served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1995 to 1997 and from 2000 to 2001. He also served as special assistant to President Clinton and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council (1993-95) and as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in the U.S. Department of State (1997-2000). Before entering the U.S. government, Indyk was founding executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy for eight years. He currently serves on the boards of the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Australia and the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel. Indyk also serves as a member of the advisory boards of the Israel Democracy Institute and America Abroad Media. Indyk received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Sydney University and a doctorate from the Australian National University.

Indyk is the author of "Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East" (Simon and Schuster, 2009) and the co-author of "Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy" with Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Lieberthal (Brookings Institution Press, 2012).  He is currently completing a book on “Henry Kissinger and the Art of the Middle East Deal” to be published by A.A.Knopf in 2019.

Additionally, Indyk now serves as Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Middle East Investment Initiative (MEII).