Liz Cheney

Elizabeth L. ("Liz") Cheney is an attorney and specialist in U.S. Middle East policy, who is the daughter of Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney. She is assisting his father with his memoirs, and is active in neoconservative groups such as Keep America Safe, and political warfare against the Obama Administration to defend the Bush-Cheney legacy. She is also a member of the International Board of Visitors at the University of Wyoming, and chairman of the board of the Institute for the Study of War.

She is affiliated with her father's political approach, and appeals to the hard-line national security conservatism part of the Republican base.

Early career

From 1988 to 1993, she worked on aid programs for Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union at the U.S. Department of State and at theAgency for International Development. She then practiced law at White & Case LLP in the area of international project finance from 1996 to 1999. From 1999 to 2002 she served on assignment with the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group.

George W. Bush Administration

In the first George W. Bush Administration, she was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, in the U.S. State Department under Colin Powell from 2002 to 2004. She was responsible for the establishment of the $300 million Middle East Partnership Initiative to support political, economic and educational reform and the empowerment of women in the Middle East. Perceived as an agent of the Vice President, according to Lawrence Wilkerson, Powell's chief of staff said,"She came across to me as…pushing her weight around. She knew who her daddy was."

When Liz Cheney was promoted at the start of Bush's second term, becoming principal deputy assistant secretary of state, she upset some more moderate political appointees by pressing hard to use government money for regime change in Syria and Iran. According to several former colleagues who would speak about her activities only on condition of anonymity, Cheney began acting more as an appendage of her father's office, at a time when administration policy was trending toward a more diplomatic approach

=Keep America Safe

When she announced the formation of Keep America Safe in October 2009, she described the motivation as "The policies being proposed by the Obama administration are so radical across the board,” Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, you want the nation to be strong and so many steps this president is taking are making the nation weaker.”

Writing for the Thinkprogress blog of the liberal Center for American Progress, Matt Duss described it as linked to the Foreign Policy Initiative, an "attempt to reboot and rebrand the neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC)." He suggested this group will "essentially function as the street-fighting arm of the more “serious,” policy-oriented FPI."

Its mission statement is phrased in political terms.

America’s interests are challenged by an authoritarian China, a resurgent Russia, and dictators in our own hemisphere who ally themselves with our adversaries. Amidst the great challenges to America’s security and prosperity, the current administration too often seems uncertain, wishful, irresolute, and unwilling to stand up for America, our allies and our interests...By turning away from the policies that have kept us safe, by treating terrorism as a law enforcement matter, giving foreign terrorists the same rights as American citizens, launching investigations of CIA agents, cutting defense spending, breaking faith with our allies and attempting to appease our adversaries, the current administration is weakening the nation, and making it more difficult for us to defend our security and our interests.

Politico said

But its spirit is very much the Cheneys.’ The former vice president assumed a high profile role last spring publicly contesting the Obama administration’s move to bring its interrogation policy in line with international law – and defending his own legacy. More recently, he’s faded into the background as Liz Cheney, deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs in the Bush years, emerges as the most visible defender of that administration’s foreign policy and the most vocal critic of Obama’s departures from it.

Future directions

Michael Isikoff and Michael Hirsh of Newsweek speculated

Education

Ms. Cheney earned her law degree from the University of Chicago in 1996 and her bachelor’s degree from the Colorado College in 1988.

Personal

She is married to Philip J. Perry and they have five children.