Patrick Lyell Clawson (born March 30, 1951[1]) is an American economist and Middle East scholar.
He has additionally published opinion pieces in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.
Clawson was co-convenor of the Presidential Study Group organized by The Washington Institute.
Clawson drew criticism for a presentation on September 21, 2012 in which he suggested the United States could consider the use of "crisis initiation" as a method of provoking Iran into war.
This was part of a presentation given with Dennis Ross and David Makovsky at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy entitled How to Build U.S.-Israeli Coordination on Preventing an Iranian Nuclear Breakout.