Ahmed Nagi
Senior Analyst, Yemen
International Crisis Group
Ahmed Nagi is a Senior Analyst for Yemen with International Crisis Group. Ahmed is responsible for covering conflict dynamics, politics, security and the regional role of the country. He provides field-based insights and recommendations aimed at resolving conflict.
Before joining Crisis Group, Ahmed was a non-resident scholar at the Malcom H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, where he covered the conflict in Yemen, borderland dynamics, and local governance transformations, among other issues. Additionally, he was the research manager at the Institute of Citizenship and Diversity Management at Adyan Foundation in Lebanon, a country coordinator on Yemen and Oman at Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem) in Sweden, and a senior consultant at Insight Source Center for Research and Consulting in Yemen. Ahmed holds an MA in Public Governance from the University of Granada, Spain.
X: @AhmedNagiYE
Amjad Iraqi
Senior Editor
+972 Magazine
Amjad Iraqi is a senior editor at +972 Magazine. He is also an associate fellow with Chatham House’s MENA Programme and a policy member of Al-Shabaka. In addition to +972, he has written for the London Review of Books, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, and The Guardian, among others.
Anne-Kristin Treiber
Head, Mediation Support and Peacebuilding Team, Stabilisation Platform
German Federal Foreign Office
Anne-Kristin Treiber is a senior conflict expert and mediator with over 20 years’ experience in policy and practice, working for the UK and German Governments as well as the United Nations. She is the Head of the Mediation Support and Peacebuilding Team, an advisory unit within the German Federal Foreign Office’s Stabilisation Directorate, where she leads mediation support across regions. She has worked extensively in and on the MENA region for the UK and German governments. As a senior adviser to the UK government on Syria, Yemen and Libya, Anne-Kristin led various research and policy analysis projects, including on ‘Elite Bargains and Political Deals’ and the war economy in Syria. She holds a master’s degree from the Institut d’Etudes Politique Paris/Sciences Po and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in conflict and security studies, with a geographic focus on the Middle East.
Arda Bilgen
Research Officer
London School of Economics, Middle East Centre,
Dr Arda Bilgen is a Research Officer at the LSE Middle East Centre. Before joining the LSE, he taught at Clark University and the University of Warwick. He holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Bonn, an MA in International Security Studies from the George Washington University, and a BA in International Relations from Bilkent University. He mainly works on water governance, infrastructure politics and transboundary water interactions, particularly in the Middle East. He has published in a wide range of journals such as British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Forum for Development Studies, Geoforum, New Perspectives on Turkey and Qualitative Research.
X: @ardabilgen
LinkedIn: Arda Bilgen
Azeema Cheema
Founding Director
Verso Consulting
Azeema Cheema is a Research Lead for XCEPT, and currently leads research in Pakistan under the X-Border Local Research Network on fragility in local market systems and conflict dynamics in borderland communities along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Azeema has seventeen years of development sector experience. In addition to long-term positions with the Asian Development Bank and International Republican Institute, she has consulted for a range of multilateral, bilateral and civil society organisations. She specialises in applied political economy and conflict sensitivity for complex programs. As a co-creator of the Mass Anxieties Project, Azeema focuses on the discourse of violence and non-violence in social movements and developing communications frameworks to assist peace building. Azeema is also a Founding Director at Verso Consulting where she leads the portfolio on Conflict, Fragility,
and Violence.
Azeema has previously served as a Visiting Faculty member in public policy at the National Defence University and Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. Since 2018 Azeema leads research in Pakistan under the X-Border Local Research Network on fragility in local market systems and conflict dynamics in borderland communities along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Burcu Ozcelik
Senior Research Fellow
Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)
Dr Burcu Ozcelik is a Senior Research Fellow at RUSI. With over 15 years’ experience in geopolitical risk analysis, security and threat assessments, and strategic advisory in both the public and private sector, Burcu specialises in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Turkey, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Previously, Burcu worked as an Associate Director at a London-based consultancy firm, leading the MENA practice and with the United Nations Development Programme.
Burcu holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies and an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge. She previously held the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the Department of Politics and International Studies where she taught Conflict, Peacebuilding, and the Politics of the Middle East. Her research sits at the intersection of the international relations of the Middle East, political theories of recognition, reconciliation, and democratisation, and contributes to a critical literature on the crisis and evolution of state sovereignty, the role of non-state actors, extremist ideologies, and the politics of borders and territoriality in the Middle East.
Christian Dennys-McClure
Deputy Director and Head, UK’s Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) Recovery and Reconstruction Team in the Israel/OPTs Taskforce
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Dr Christian Dennys-McClure is a Deputy Director in FCDO and the Head of the UK’s OPTs Recovery and Reconstruction Team in the Israel/OPTs Taskforce and is the UK’s former British High Commissioner to The Republic of Cameroon and non-resident Ambassador to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. He previously served as Head of the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), Joint Funds Unit. Christian has a PhD in stability and stabilisation from Cranfield University/UK Defence Academy and previously worked in the NGO sector for Oxfam and Amnesty International.
Costanza Torre
Research Lead on South Sudan for XCEPT
King’s College London
Dr Costanza Torre is a medical anthropologist with a background in Clinical Psychology and a PhD in International Development from the LSE. Her work uses ethnographic methods to explore the socio-political dimensions of public health interventions in complex emergencies, as well as minority populations’ lived experiences of suffering under social, economic and political duress. Her doctoral research in northern Uganda focuses on the current expansion of global mental health thinking and practice in humanitarian emergencies, and on the role of social and structural determinants of mental health. Dr Torre is also a Visiting Fellow at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa (FLIA) at LSE.
Craig Larkin
Reader in Middle East Politics and Peace and Conflict Studies
King’s College London
Dr Craig Larkin is a Reader in Middle East Politics and Peace and Conflict Studies at King’s College London. Craig is a Research Lead on Memory and Conflict for XCEPT at King’s College London. Prior to joining King’s College London, he was an ESRC Postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Politics, University of Exeter. Craig holds a PhD in Middle East Studies from the University of Exeter (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, 2009), an MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice (LLM, 1999) and a BA(Hons) in Law and Politics (LLB, 1998) from Queen’s University Belfast. He also studied Arabic at Damascus University (2002-2004) and worked in community development projects in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
Craig is the author of Memory and Conflict in Lebanon: Remembering and Forgetting the Past (Routledge: London and NY, 2012); co-author of The Struggle for Jerusalem’s Holy Places (Routledge: London and NY, 2013) and co-editor of The Alawis of Syria: War, Faith and Politics in the Levant (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2015). He has also written articles and book chapters on memory and violence, urban geopolitics, Islamist movements, and post-conflict politics. His current book project is examining the Islamic movement inside Israel, for which he was awarded a British Academy and Leverhulme grant.
Daniel Levy
President
U.S. / Middle East Project
Daniel Levy is a British-Israeli commentator, analyst and the current president of the U.S./Middle East Project (USMEP). From 2012 to 2016, Daniel was the head of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). Daniel is a former Israeli peace negotiator for Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin.
Farea Al-Muslimi
Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme
Chatham House
Farea Al-Muslimi is a Research Fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. Farea’s research focuses on Yemen and the wider Gulf region. Prior to joining Chatham House, he was a non-resident fellow at Malcom H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center and the Middle East Institute in Washington. He also has worked at the National Democratic Institute, Beyond Reforms and Development, and Resonate! Yemen. He co-founded the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies in 2014, serving as its first chairperson until 2022, and overseeing growth of the organization into Yemen’s premier think-tank. Farea is a regular commentator on regional affairs in international and regional media outlets. His analysis on Yemen and the wider region has been published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Independent, The Guardian, McClatchy, The National, Al-Hayyat, Assafir, Al-Monitor, Die Zeit, Liberations, Daraj, Bidayat, Just Security, New Lines Magazine, and many others.
X: @almuslimi
Fiona McEwen
XCEPT Co-Lead / Survey and Interventions Director XCEPT
King’s College London
Fiona McEwen is a Co-Lead and the Survey and Interventions Director for XCEPT at King’s College London. She is based at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), King’s College London, and is also affiliated with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, and Queen Mary University of London.
Dr McEwen’s background is in developmental psychology, mental health, and neuroscience. Her research focuses on mental health in war-affected and displaced populations, including evaluation of psychological interventions; how culture and the context of displacement impact assessment, treatment, and prognosis of mental health problems; and how the impact of trauma may influence further cycles of violence.
LinkedIn: Fiona McEwen
Glada Lahn
Senior Research Fellow, Environment and Society Centre
Chatham House
Glada Lahn is Senior Research Fellow at the Environment and Society Centre at Chatham House. Since joining Chatham House in 2004, she has worked on a range of international resource-related projects which intersect with geopolitical, economic, and development concerns. Glada has led influential research on energy policy in the Arab Gulf, energy access amongst displaced people in 2015, and how climate change and decarbonization affect the prospects and choices for developing country oil and gas producers.
She is currently working on CASCADES, a multi-partner EU initiative to assess the transboundary risks of climate impacts and make recommendations for actions on resilience building. From 2002 to 2004, she was senior research fellow at the Gulf Centre for Strategic Studies. She has a BA in Arabic and international relations, and an MA in Near and Middle Eastern studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
X: @Glada_Lahn
Greg Shapland
Senior Research Fellow
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Greg Shapland is a Senior Research Fellow at the FCDO, on loan from the LSE Middle East Centre. He is a researcher and writer on politics, security, resources, and environment (including water) in the Middle East and North Africa. His project at the FCDO, which runs until April 2026, seeks to investigate water security in MENA countries.
Greg served as a Middle East/North Africa Research Analyst in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) from 1979 until 2015. He was also Head of Research Analysts from July 2010 to July 2013. During his time with the FCO, Greg served in several British Embassies in the MENA region and in the Consulate General in Jerusalem.
Greg holds degrees in Geography, Arabic and Area Studies (Middle East, geography and politics). His book Rivers of Discord: International Water Disputes in the Middle East was published in 1997.
Haid Haid
Consulting Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme
Chatham House
Dr Haid Haid is a Syrian columnist and a consulting fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. Previously, Haid was a research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), King’s College London. He also worked as a programme manager on Syria and Iraq at the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Middle East Office in Beirut. Prior to that, Haid worked as a senior community services protection assistant at UNHCR’s Damascus office. He has a bachelor’s degree in sociology, a postgraduate diploma in counselling, master’s degrees in social development and conflict resolution, and a PhD in war studies. Haid’s main research interests include security policies, governance, conflict resolution, and non-state actors.
X: @HaidHaid22
Hamza Meddeb
Research Fellow
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Hamza Meddeb is a research fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where he co-leads the Political Economy Program and is a Research Lead for XCEPT. Hamza’s research focuses on the political economy of Tunisia and North Africa, the politics of illicit transnational flows, governance and corruption, as well as the development-security nexus. He has also consulted for several international organizations on issues related to development policies, socioeconomic policy analysis, and fragility and conflicts. His commentaries have appeared in English, Arabic and French in The Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, Le Monde, Le Monde Diplomatique Al-Jazeera, Middle East Eye and Assafir al-Arabi, among other outlets. Before joining Carnegie, Hamza was a research fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and a Jean Monnet post-doctoral fellow at the institute.
Haneen Sayed
Senior Fellow
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Haneen Sayed is a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. Sayed is an economic development professional, with more than 25 years at the World Bank. She has led major strategic engagements and worked in business development, reform programs, and policy dialogues in economic and human development, spanning the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Europe. Her areas of expertise include social protection, labour and jobs, education, poverty and gender, in addition to fragility and conflict. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford and Columbia Universities, as well as executive training at Harvard University. She has taught at various universities in New York City, and worked at Morgan Stanley, the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development.
X: @Haneen_WB
Hayder Al-Shakeri
Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme
Chatham House
Hayder Al-Shakeri is a Research Fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. Hayder is co-lead of Chatham House XCEPT research on Iraq and the Levant. Prior to joining Chatham House, Hayder supported the Arab regional cooperation programme at the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining. Prior to this, he worked with the United Nations and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency in Baghdad. He frequently provides commentary on Iraqi affairs on several platforms. Hayder holds a BA in Public Administration and Political Studies from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and an MSc in Development Studies from SOAS, University of London. He is also a fellow with the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations.
X: @HayderSH
Heather Marquette
Professor of Development Politics
University of Birmingham
Professor Heather Marquette is Professor of Development Politics at the University of Birmingham and is the Director of the Serious Organised Crime & Anti-Corruption Evidence (SOC ACE) research programme. Until early September, she was seconded part-time to FCDO’s Research and Evidence Directorate as Senior Research Fellow (Governance and Conflict) where she provided advice and support to XCEPT from its inception. In addition, she is an Expert Member of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime’s expert network, a member of the RUSI State Threats Task Force and a Lead Advisor and founding member of the global Thinking & Working Politically Community of Practice. Her research, which has been funded by the British Academy/Global Challenges Research Fund, DFID/FCDO, DFAT and the EU, focuses on transnational threats, particularly corruption and organised crime, as well as aid and foreign policy, governance and political analysis.
X: @hamarquette
LinkedIn: Heather Marquette
Ilyssa Yahmi
Research Fellow,
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Ilyssa Yahmi is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Temple University and a 2024-2025 United States Institute of Peace – Minerva Peace and Security Scholar. She is a Research Fellow with the XCEPT Local Research Network, working on the externalisation of European border control and anti-human smuggling policies to African states. Her doctoral dissertation explores the relationship between smuggling as a tool for rebel governance and the production of violence in Mali. Her work has been supported by the United States Institute of Peace, the United States Department of Defense, the Fulbright Program, as well as the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy and the Global Studies Program at Temple University.
Prior to starting her PhD, Ilyssa received her MA in International Security from the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po and a Master’s Certificate in National Defense and Security from the French Institute of Higher Studies in National Defense
(IHEDN).
Inna Rudolf
Senior Researcher, International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR)
King’s College London
Dr Inna Rudolf is a Senior Research Fellow at ICSR and a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies at King’s College London. As a Research Fellow for XCEPT at King’s College London, Inna analyses the implications of identity politics and the mobilisation of violent memories in conflict-affected borderlands. As part of her PhD thesis at the War Studies Department of King’s College London, Inna focused on the hybridization of security sector governance, examining Iraq’s paramilitary umbrella – the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) – and their quest for legitimacy within the state. In addition to her field work in Iraq, she lived in Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, and Palestine for several years.
X: @inna_veleva
LinkedIn: Inna Rudolf
Jihad Yazigi
Editor-in-Chief
The Syria Report
Jihad Yazigi is the founder and editor in chief of The Syria Report, a subscription-based online economic digest on Syria. For the past two decades he has written extensively on Syria’s economy, political economy, finance, business world and international relations. He has authored or co-authored several research papers for the European Council on Foreign Relations, Chatham House, the European University Institute and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Jihad has provided research, advisory and consultancy services to regional and international businesses and organisations. His areas of expertise include the Middle East, Syria, Lebanon, Syrian economy and political economy. He is a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and an associate fellow at the Issam Fares Institute of the American University of Beirut.
X: @jihadyazigi
Jonathan Goodhand
Professor in Conflict and Development Studies
SOAS, University of London
Dr Jonathan Goodhand is a Professor in Conflict and Development Studies in the Department of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, an FCDO/UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Senior Research Fellow (War and Conflict) and an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne.
He has led several large research projects and published extensively on the political economy of armed conflict, war/illicit economies, conflict and borderlands, stabilisation and peacebuilding/processes, with a particular focus on South and Central Asia. Most recently, this included a UKRI/Global Challenges Research Fund project ‘Drugs and (dis) order: building sustainable peacetime economies in the aftermath of war’ (2018 – 2022), which studied drug economies and post-war transitions in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Myanmar.
Single and multi-authored books include: Aiding Peace: the role of NGOs in Armed Conflict, War Economies in a Regional Context: Challenges for Transformation, and Checkpoint, Temple, Church and Mosque: A Collaborative Ethnography of War and Peace in Eastern Sri Lanka.
Karim Elgendy
Urban Sustainability and Climate Consultant
Karim Elgendy’s areas of expertise include developing sustainable and resilient cities and neighbourhoods, climate policy analysis, and energy transition. His current work focuses on the Middle East and North Africa region, especially around the Eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf, but his 20 years of experience spans Europe, North America and sub-Saharan Africa. Karim is the founder and coordinator of Carboun, an advocacy initiative promoting urban sustainability in the Middle East and North Africa through research and communication. Karim’s research interests include managing natural resources, energy transitions and climate policy, especially in Syria and the Levant, Israel and Palestine, Egypt, Turkey and the Gulf states.
Kheder Khaddour
Non-Resident Scholar
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Kheder Khaddour is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center. He is a Research Lead for XCEPT at Carnegie, with a focus on Syria’s borders. His research centers on civil-military relations and local identities in the Levant. Previously, Kheder was a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago. He has conducted independent research for the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and has worked as an independent journalist for Reuters. Kheder’s most recent publications include Eastern Expectations: The Changing Dynamics in Syria’s Tribal Regions (co-authored with Kevin Mazur, February 2017); How Regional Security Concerns Uniquely Constrain Governance in Northeastern Syria (March 2017); Local Wars and the Chance for Decentralized Peace in Syria (March 2017) and Back to What Future? What Remains for Syria’s Displaced People (January 2018).
Leah de Haan
Researcher and Project Manager, Middle East and North Africa Programme
Chatham House
Leah de Haan is a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam, researching international policy on gender-based violence. She is the Social Inclusion Lead for XCEPT at Chatham House. Leah has published several journal articles, book chapters, editorials and a Chatham House research paper, including in Sustainable Development, International Affairs and Development Policy Review. Leah holds an MSc in International Relations Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in Politics and International Relations from Macquarie University Sydney.
Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent
BBC
Lyse is the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent. A household name in the UK, having reported for the BBC since the mid-1980s, she has made a significant contribution to public understanding of conflicts and has specialised in the Middle East, covering the wars in the region since the mid-1990s. She has also reported extensively from Afghanistan, Ukraine and other conflicts, and has made a series of award-winning documentaries highlighting the plight of children caught up in war.
Maha Yahya
Director
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Dr Maha Yahya is the Director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center. Her work focuses broadly on political violence and identity politics, pluralism, development and social justice after the Arab uprisings, the challenges of citizenship, and the political and socio-economic implications of the migration/refugee crisis. Maha is Research Director for XCEPT at Carnegie. Prior to joining Carnegie, Maha led work on Participatory Development and Social Justice at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA). She was regional adviser on social and urban policies at UN-ESCWA and spearheaded strategic and inter-sectoral initiatives and policies in the Office of the Executive Secretary which addressed the challenges of democratic transitions in the Arab world. Maha also worked with the United Nations Development Program in Lebanon and was the founder and editor of the MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies.
X: @mahamyahya
Mette Bastholm Jensen
Deputy Director
XCEPT
Dr Mette Bastholm Jensen is Deputy Director of the XCEPT research programme. She was previously a Senior Conflict and Stabilisation Advisor in the UK Stabilisation Unit, where she led cross-HMG engagement on Syria. As a Chief Technical Advisor in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Office for Stabilisation and Security Policy, she supported policy and programmes across the MENA and AfPak regions. Mette spent several years in Afghanistan, leading Denmark’s largest country programme at the Danish Embassy in Kabul, as a district stabilisation adviser with the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team, and leading knowledge management for a consortium of INGOs delivering community-based education across the country. A sociologist by training, whose research has focused on violent conflict and collective action, Mette holds a PhD and MA from Yale University and a BA from the University of Copenhagen.
Mohanad Hage Ali
Deputy Director for Research
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Mohanad Hage Ali is the Deputy Director for research at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, where his work focuses on the shifting geopolitics and Islamist groups after the Arab uprisings. Mohanad is a Research Lead for XCEPT at Carnegie. He teaches politics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and has lectured at the American University in Beirut. Mohanad’s work focuses on Levantine politics, and he has published a book titled Nationalism, Transnationalism and Political Islam: Hizbullah’s Institutional Identity in 2017, and co-edited A Restless Revival: Political Islam After the 2011 Uprisings. Prior to Carnegie, Mohanad worked as a reporter at al-Hayat newspaper in London and as an editor-in-chief of NOW Arabic in Beirut, where his work focused on political Islam and Iraq.
Nafees Hamid
XCEPT Research and Policy Director
King’s College London
Dr Nafees Hamid is the Research and Policy Director and co-lead of the XCEPT project at King’s College London. He is a cognitive scientist who conducts psychological, neuroscientific, and anthropological research on political violence. He has conducted face-to-face research with jihadists, white nationalists, conspiracists and armed group members, as well as civilians. He was one of the lead researchers on the first-ever brain imaging studies of jihadist supporters. He has directed and participated in research in Western Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and parts of Latin America. He has advised on the national strategies for the rehabilitation of and reintegration of foreign fighters in Tunisia and Kosovo and has advised and briefed many organisations, including the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office, UK Home Office, US State Department, various units within the United Nations and the French Prime Minister’s office.
X: @NafeesHamid
LinkedIn: Nafees Hamid
Neal Kringel
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilisation Operations (CSO)
US Department of State
Neal F. Kringel is a Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for the Department of State Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO). A career member of the Senior Executive Service, Neal leads the Bureau’s efforts to anticipate, prevent, and respond to conflict and instability in the Middle East and Africa. He also oversees CSO’s Office of Advanced Analytics. Neal joined the Department in 2011 after a 27-year career in the U.S. Air Force as a navigator and Africa foreign area officer.
Mr. Kringel received his BS from University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, an MS from Troy University, and is a PhD candidate in International Development. He was an adjunct professor at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs for six years. Among his major awards and decorations are the Airman’s Medal, the Bronze Star, the Department of State Award for Heroism, the Department of State Superior Honor Award, and the l’Ordre National du Mérite Gabonais (National Order of Merit for Gabon).
Peter Salisbury
Researcher
Peter Salisbury is a New York-based researcher and analyst and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. His work focuses on the political economy of armed conflict in the Middle East and North Africa. A former Senior Analyst for Yemen at the International Crisis Group, Peter is a consultant to the World Bank and Mercy Corps’ Crisis Analysis team. He co-leads a small research team, funded by XCEPT, studying arms smuggling in Yemen.
Rebecca Dale
Conflict Head of Profession,
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Rebecca Dale is FCDO’s Head of Profession for Conflict (Research and Evidence Division) leading our network of conflict advisers globally and working with others on building our conflict policy and capability. She joined FCDO (then DFID) in 2008; her work there has included reform of the international conflict and peacebuilding architecture, and covering Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring and its aftermath. She came to DFID from a career with INGOs, the UN, and as an academic practitioner on conflicts and complex humanitarian emergencies.
Renad Mansour
Senior Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, and Project Director, Iraq Initiative
Chatham House
Dr Renad Mansour is a Senior Research Fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Programme and Project Director of the Iraq Initiative at Chatham House. Renad is the Principal Investigator of the XCEPT project at Chatham House and lead of the Iraq and the Levant case study. He is also a senior research fellow at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, and a research fellow at the Cambridge Security Initiative. Renad was previously a lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science and held positions as lecturer of international studies and supervisor at the Faculty of Politics at Cambridge. He was previously a senior research fellow at the Iraq Institute for Strategic Studies in Beirut and was adviser to the Kurdistan Regional Government Civil Society Ministry (2008-10). He received his PhD from Cambridge University. He is co-author of Once Upon a Time in Iraq, published by BBC Books/Penguin to accompany the critically acclaimed BBC series.
Rim Turkmani
Senior Policy Fellow
LSE Middle East Centre
Dr. Rim Turkmani is a Senior Policy Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre and LSE IDEAS. She is a transdisciplinary scholar who has been working at the LSE on divided communities and peacebuilding in the Middle East, with focus on Syria, since 2013. She is the Principal Investigator of the “Legitimacy and Civicness in the Arab World” project, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York since 2019.
She has published numerous policy and academic papers and most recently co-edited a Special Issue on local agreements in protracted conflicts for the Peacebuilding journal. She is actively involved in policy advisory roles, having been invited multiple times to provide expert testimony to UK Parliamentary committees and the UK courts.
Before joining LSE in 2014, Dr. Turkmani had a notable career spanning 15 years in astrophysics working at Imperial College London, where she was a Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow of the Royal Society.
X: @Rim_Turkmani
LinkedIn: Rim Turkmani
Robert Barclay
Senior Conflict Advisor, MENA Regional
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Robert Barclay is a Senior Conflict Adviser in the Middle East and North Africa Regional Department in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Previously he has been a conflict adviser, or worked in the British Embassy on conflict issues, in Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Somalia. Robert has also worked for peacebuilding NGOs in Myanmar, Kenya, and in the UK.
Ruth Citrin
Executive Director
XCEPT
Dr Ruth Citrin is the Executive Director of the XCEPT consortium and directs research and evidence with Chemonics UK. Ruth brings a proven ability to translate research and analysis into actionable policy and previously served as director for Syria at the White House National Security Council, policy planner on then Secretary John Kerry’s staff, and senior Levant analyst with the US Department of State. She is the former director of the European Council on Foreign Relations programme on the Middle East and North Africa. Ruth received a master’s and doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Saeed Uri
Senior Vice President for Impact
Chemonics International
Saeed Uri is Chemonics’ Senior Vice President for Impact. He was formerly Chief of Party for the U.S. Agency for International Development Office of Transition Initiatives (USAID/OTI) Iraq Regional Program. He has more than fifteen years of experience managing development projects, including more than ten years in complex, high-speed and challenging positions in fragile or transitional environments such as Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Sudan, and Libya. While leading Chemonics’ efforts on adaptive programming in dynamic environments, Saeed also spearheaded the adoption of innovative approaches and technologies to achieve greater impact. In Syria, Saeed led Chemonics’ partnership with the Syria Civil Defense (also known as the White Helmets) to provide emergency response services to millions of civilians. Saeed has expertise in supporting early recovery and durable returns and countering disinformation. He holds an M.A. in international peace and conflict resolution and speaks Arabic fluently.
Sam Grout-Smith
Head, Middle East and North Africa Department
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Sam Grout-Smith is a UK senior civil servant with over 20 years’ experience in development, the Middle East, multilateral work and conflict policy. He started his career working with UNHCR in Jordan and then as Country Director for a UK medical NGO in the Occupied Palestinian Territories during the Second Intifada. He then joined the UK Government, enjoying a varied career split between the UK’s former Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office before both were merged into the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in 2020. During this time, he had diplomatic and development postings to Sudan, Sierra Leone, Egypt, and the UK Mission to the UN in New York, as well as roles in London covering conflict policy, the EU, and national security. His current role is Head of the Middle East and North Africa Regional Department and the North Africa Unit in the FCDO, covering geopolitics, security, climate, economics, development, and humanitarian affairs in the MENA region.
Sanam Vakil
Director, Middle East and North Africa Programme
Chatham House
Dr Sanam Vakil is Director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. Sanam is Managing Director of the XCEPT project at Chatham House. Before her appointment in 2023, Sanam was the programme’s deputy director and senior research fellow and led project work on Iran and Gulf Arab dynamics. Sanam’s research focuses on regional security, Gulf geopolitics and on future trends in Iran’s domestic and foreign policy. She is also the James Anderson professorial lecturer in the Middle East Studies department at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS Europe) in Bologna, Italy. Sanam received her BA in political science and history from Barnard College, Columbia University and her MA/PhD in international relations and international economics from Johns Hopkins University.
X: @SanamVakil
Sophie Stevens
Conflict Research Lead
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Sophie Stevens is FCDO’s global lead for conflict-related research and is a Senior Conflict Adviser. She oversees FCDO-funded research programmes XCEPT and PeaceRep, leads the development of new UK-funded conflict and security-focused research initiatives and helps to drive forward evidence-based policy on conflict and security issues within and outside of UK government. Sophie was previously posted to Nigeria and Jerusalem and has worked extensively outside of government on programmes and research to prevent and respond to conflict and violence, especially in West Africa and the Horn of Africa. She has published works on women, peace and security, security and justice provision in conflict contexts, and data and analysis to support conflict response. Sophie has a BA in International Relations from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in Development Economics from LSE.
LinkedIn: Sophie Stevens
Tabea Campbell Pauli
Senior Program Officer for Conflict and Fragility
The Asia Foundation
Tabea Campbell Pauli is Senior Programme Officer in The Asia Foundation’s Conflict & Fragility unit, leading on XCEPT’s research in the Myanmar/Bangladesh border regions. She has worked on peacebuilding and conflict resolution in Myanmar since 2016, including supporting local organisations engaged in Track One peace negotiations. Tabea has collaborated on many conflict research initiatives, co-authoring and producing numerous reports and articles, as well as publishing her own work in edited volumes and journals. Tabea holds a Master of International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam and a diploma in Gender and Conflict Studies from SOAS, University of London.
LinkedIn: Tabea Campbell Pauli
Tasnia Khandaker
Climate Research Lead, Centre for Peace and Justice
BRAC University
Tasnia Khandaker is the Climate Research Lead at the Centre for Peace and Justice, BRAC University, Bangladesh. As a commonwealth scholar, she studied humanitarian crises and ecological justice in conflict situations. She has expertise in programme management and policy analysis, and has worked in the development sector in Bangladesh for multiple years. Her research interests and writings have revolved around eco-centrism, climate justice, (im)mobilities and rights of the “other”. As part of the cross-border Local Research Network facilitated by the Asia Foundation, Tasnia is researching Bangladesh’s borderlands and fragility dynamics.
X: @tasniakp
LinkedIn: Tasnia Khandaker
Tim Eaton
Senior Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme
Chatham House
Tim Eaton’s research focuses on the political economy of conflict in the MENA region and on that of the Libyan conflict. Tim leads Chatham House XCEPT research on Libya. Tim is the lead author of a major 2019 Chatham House report, “Conflict Economies in the Middle East and North Africa”, which was selected as one of the leading papers by a think tank in the University of Pennsylvania’s 2020 Go-To Think Tank Index. Tim has engaged extensively with Western policymakers in the development of their policies in the MENA region. His work on the Libyan conflict has seen him work with the UN mission and other stakeholders to develop an economic track of political negotiations. He also leads the training of officers in political economy analysis at the UN Department of Peacebuilding and Political Affairs.
X: @el_khawaga
Yasmine Zarhloule
Non-Resident Scholar
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Yasmine Zarhloule is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center. Yasmine is a Research Lead for XCEPT Programme at Carnegie, focusing on Morocco’s borderlands Her research focuses on nation-state building, borders, and the politics of space in the Maghreb. She is a DPhil Candidate at the University of Oxford. Previously, Yasmine held positions as a research consultant at the European Council of Foreign Relations (London), as a research trainee at the Carnegie Middle East Center (Beirut), as well as research assistantships at both the University of Oxford and the University of Warwick, where she worked on topics related to migration, EU-MENA relations, and development policies. She holds an MSc in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oxford and an MA in International Relations from the University of Warwick.
Yezid Sayigh
Senior Fellow
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Yezid Sayigh is a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where he works on the comparative political and economic roles of Arab armed forces, the impact of war on states and societies, and the politics of authoritarian resurgence. Previously, Yezid held teaching and research positions at King’s College London, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Oxford, and headed the Middle East program of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He was also an adviser, negotiator, and policy planner in the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks with Israel 1991-2002 and advised on Palestinian public institutional reform until 2006. His latest publications include “Civilians in Arab Defense Affairs: Implications for Providers of Security Assistance,” (2023), Throwing Down the Gauntlet: What the IMF Can Do About Egypt’s Military Companies (2022), and Retain, Restructure, or Divest? Policy Options for Egypt’s Military Economy (2022).
X: @SayighYezid
Zmkan Saleem
Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme
Chatham House
Dr Zmkan Saleem was previously Director of Research at the Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. During his tenure, Zmkan served as a lead researcher for projects funded by the FCDO, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), the EU and the Norwegian Research Council focusing on political economy in Iraq and Kurdistan. He holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Leeds and teaches in the College of Political Sciences at the University of Suliamani. His doctoral research examined the domestic sources of Iran’s regional security policies. Dr Saleem has contributed to the Fikra Forum at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.