CNN Presidential Historian and Author
Timothy Naftali: Biography at a Glance
- Timothy Naftali, a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University, is a pioneer in the study of modern international and espionage history and is a well-recognized CNN presidential historian.
- Naftali and Russian academic Aleksandr Fursenko wrote the path-breaking One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro and Kennedy, 1958-1964 and Khrushchev’s Cold War, the latter winning the Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature in 2007 and inclusion on Foreign Affairs’ 2014 list of the ten best books on the Cold War.
- As a consultant to the 9/11 Commission, Naftali wrote a history of US counterterrorism, later published as Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism. He has also written George H. W. Bush, on the Nation’s 41st president.
- Naftali was the founding director of the federal Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, where he drew positive national attention for curating its Watergate Gallery.
- Naftali, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Slate and Foreign Affairs, is also seen regularly in television documentaries.
- He has appeared in several documentaries, most recently Prime Video’s The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes and CNN’s 2010s, and has also consulted on CNN’s Tricky Dick and Netflix’s Designated Survivor.
Biography
Dr. Timothy Naftali, formerly a clinical professor of public service at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, clinical professor of history in NYU’s College of Arts and Science, and director of NYU’s undergraduate public policy program, joined Columbia in July 2023 as a Senior Research Scholar at SIPA.
Naftali, whose book Khrushchev’s Cold War with Aleksandr Fursenko won the Royal United Services Institute’s Duke of Westminster’s medal for military literature, is a pioneer in the study of modern international and espionage history and is a well-recognized presidential historian. After serving as the first director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs’ presidential recordings program. Naftali became the founding director of the federal Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, where he curated a nationally recognized nonpartisan permanent exhibit on Watergate and oversaw the release of 1.3 million pages of records.
Naftali is the author, co-author or editor of 8 books, including a biography of George Herbert Walker Bush and histories of US counterterrorism policy and of presidential impeachment. Naftali was an historical consultant to both the Nazi War Crimes and Imperial Japanese Government Records Interagency Working Group and to the 9/11 Commission. He is currently a member of the State Department’s Historical Advisory Committee, which provides oversight for the Foreign Relations of the United States series. Naftali, who is a CNN presidential historian, has appeared in several documentaries, most recently Prime Video’s The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes and CNN’s 2010s, and has also consulted on CNN’s Tricky Dick and Netflix’s Designated Survivor.
