Jonathan Katz

Jonathan Katz is the Senior Director for the Anti-Corruption, Democracy, and Security (ACDS) Project in Governance Studies at Brookings. He is recognized as an anti-corruption, national security, international development, and democracy expert. Katz has held senior positions in the U.S. government at the State Department, USAID, and in Congress.

Just prior to Brookings, Katz served as the National Security Fellow for Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota). In this capacity he advised on key areas of his foreign policy expertise: transatlantic relations, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Turkey.

Before that, Katz was a Senior Fellow and Director of Democracy Initiatives for the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) where his programmatic activities and research focused on investigative journalism and free media, anti-corruption efforts, civil society and democracy promotion, and good governance reforms in Central and Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Turkey. While at GMF, Katz served as Executive Director and managed the Transatlantic Democracy Working Group (TDWG) and help create and served as co-chair for the Transatlantic Task Force for Ukraine (TTFU). He also co-directed and co-hosted the Cable Podcast focused frontline threats to democracy and the transatlantic relationship.

Before his time at GMF, Katz served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Europe & Eurasia Bureau at USAID, where he managed and developed a multimillion-dollar assistance portfolio and U.S. development policy, democracy, anti-corruption, and good governance programs and economic growth and energy security projects. At USAID he led efforts to secure high-level agreements with the European Union (EU), Romania, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). He also served as USAID’s co-chair of political, economic, trade, and development working groups with the EU, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Poland, and Romania, and the EBRD.

Earlier in his career Katz served as a Senior Advisor in the State Department’s International Organization Affairs Bureau, writing speeches and advising on congressional strategy. He also advised the Assistant Secretary and other senior U.S government officials on various U.S. national security, multilateral policies, and development and human rights priorities at the UN.

Katz began his career on the Hill, where he was the Staff Director of the Europe Subcommittee on the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He also served as the Legislative Director for Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), guiding foreign and domestic policies and managing all legislative affairs.

Katz is a frequent contributor and commentor to American and European media, offering interviews to outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, MSNBC, Newsweek, The Hill, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Axios, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Voice of America. Katz received a bachelor’s degree in speech communications from Syracuse University.