Ranj Alaaldin

Ranj Alaaldin is a foreign policy specialist with over 20 years of experience covering issues of international security, good governance, track II diplomacy, and public sector reforms. He is a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, Director of the Carnegie Corporation’s Crisis Response Council, a senior consultant at the World Bank and a former fellow at the Brookings Institution. Dr. Alaaldin obtained his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he obtained degrees in international law. He was a fellow at Columbia University, has published widely on conflict and governance in the Middle East and North Africa, advises the World Bank on youth empowerment and the political economy of violence, and was previously an associate fellow at King’s College London and Oxford Research Group. He has led multiple research teams in the MENA region, including Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey, conducting interviews with political and clerical figures, Shiite militias, and ISIS prisoners. Alaaldin has written and led studies on post-conflict reconstruction, climate-related security threats, security sector reform, U.S. and European foreign policy for the World Bank, the Carnegie Corporation, and the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance. He has presented his work at the World Bank, the House of Commons, and the UK Foreign Affairs Committee. Alaaldin has published in academic journals and edited volumes and writes for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy.