Shoshana Bryen, senior director of Washington’s Jewish Policy Center and editor of inFOCUS Quarterly, died on Thursday, July 16, 2026.
She was a longtime contributor to Asia Times of articles often written in collaboration with her husband, former US Under Secretary of Defense Stephen Bryen.
She died after “a long struggle with cancer,” according to her husband, who survives her along with four children and five grandchildren. “She was truly a woman of valor.”
According to the Jewish Policy Center’s obituary:
Shoshana devoted her life to the security of the Jewish people and strengthening the alliance between the United States and Israel. She spent more than three decades at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA).
In 2012, Shoshana brought her experience and moral clarity to the Jewish Policy Center. Shoshana was the intellectual heart of the JPC. She served as Senior Director and edited inFOCUS Quarterly into a serious and widely read journal of ideas and policy. She brought clarity, conviction, and a lifetime of expertise in American defense policy and Middle East affairs to everything she touched.
Her voice was fearless and unmistakable, and her insight shaped the thinking of countless colleagues, readers, and leaders.
A leading specialist in U.S. defense policy and Middle East affairs, she worked with the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College and the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, lectured at Israel’s National Defense University and reached a broad public through decades of columns and commentary.
Those who sat across the table from Shoshana will remember that she was, more often than not, the smartest person in the room, but never once made anyone feel it. She listened before she spoke. She gave younger colleagues room to think, and credit when they earned it. Her intelligence was matched only by her generosity, and generations of analysts, officers, and writers owe part of who they’ve become to her leadership.
Shoshana devoted herself to the security of the United States and Israel and to the strength of the Jewish people. She mentored many and made this world better than she found it.
Read Shoshana Bryen’s final Asia Times article here.
