Nicholas Poppen

Nicholas Poppen is a retired U.S. Army Foreign Area Officer with twenty years of experience in the Middle East and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). Nicholas holds a master’s degree in international policy development from Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He is adept at navigating relationships in the joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational (JIIM) environment having operated alongside a wide variety of partners, allies, and governmental organizations. Nicholas served as a military attaché in Israel from 2021 to 2024 supporting the bilateral relationship with a special emphasis on Palestinian security issues. Prior to Israel while stationed at CENTCOM, Nicholas led improvements to the U.S.-Saudi bilateral relationship, also working alongside the Defense Security Cooperation Agency with the Saudi Transformation Management Office enabling institutional military changes. As a junior officer, Nicholas was a tank platoon leader and company executive officer for two Iraq deployments in the 1st Cavalry Division.