Shoshana Bryen, senior director of the Washington Jewish Policy Center and editor of inFOCUS Quarterlydied Thursday, July 16, 2026.
She was a long-time contributor to the Asia Times ARTICLES often written in collaboration with her husband, former US Under Secretary of Defense Stephen Bryan.
She died after “a long battle with cancer,” according to her husband, who survives her along with four children and five grandchildren. “She was truly a brave woman.”
According to the Jewish Policy Center obituary:
Shoshana dedicated her life to the safety 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 Center for Jewish Policy. Shoshana was the intellectual heart of KPK. She served as senior director and editor inFOCUS Quarterly in a serious and widely read journal of ideas and politics. She brought clarity, conviction and a lifetime of experience 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 US defense policy and Middle East affairs, she worked with the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute and the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, lectured at Israel’s National Defense University, and reached a wide audience with decades of columns and commentaries.
Those who sat across the table from Shoshana will remember that she was, more often than not, the smartest person in the room, but she never made anyone feel that way. She listened before she spoke. She gave younger colleagues space 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 what they have become to her leadership.
Shoshana dedicated herself to the security of the United States and Israel and the strength of the Jewish people. She mentored many people and made this world better than she found it.
Read Shoshana Bryen’s latest article in Asia Times here.
