David Manker Abshire (born April 11, 1926) has served as a Special Counselor to President Reagan and was the U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 1983-1987. Currently David M. Abshire presides over the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. In July 2002, he was elected President of the Richard Lounsbery Foundation of New York. He is also a member of the exclusive Alfalfa Club.

Dr. Abshire is a Republican and the author of seven books, the most recent being A Call to Greatness: Challenging Our Next President, which was published in 2008. Dr. Abshire is married and has five children.

He is a member of the advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

David M. Abshire was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1926. He graduated from The Bright School in 1938, Baylor School in Chattanooga in 1944 and from West Point in 1951. He fought in the Korean War and was decorated as a company commander. Abshire received his doctorate in History from Georgetown University in 1959, where for many years he was an adjunct professor at its Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is a member of the Project on National Security Reform.

David (Hebrew: דָּוִד, דָּוִיד, Modern David Tiberian Dāwîḏ; ISO 259-3 Dawid; Strong's Daveed; beloved; Arabic: داوود‎ or داود‎ Dāwūd) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and, according to the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, an ancestor of Jesus. David is seen as a major Prophet in Islamic traditions. His life is conventionally dated to c. 1040–970 BC, his reign over Judah c. 1010–1003 BC,^{[citation needed]} and his reign over the United Kingdom of Israel c. 1003–970 BC.^{[citation needed]} The Books of Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles are the only sources of information on David, although the Tel Dan stele records "House of David", which some take as confirmation of the existence in the mid-9th century BC of a Judean royal dynasty called the "House of David".

David is very important to Jewish, Christian and Islamic doctrine and culture. In Judaism, David, or David HaMelekh, is the King of Israel, and the Jewish people. Jewish tradition maintains that a direct descendant of David will be the Messiah. In Islam, he is known as Dawud, considered to be a prophet and the king of a nation. He is depicted as a righteous king, though not without faults, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician, and poet, traditionally credited for composing many of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms.