MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow
Alan Eyre is a Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow at the Middle East Institute and the founder and president of EyreAnalytics LLC. He retired from the US Foreign Service in September 2023 after a 40-year government career.
Most of Alan's government service related to the MENA region, with a focus on Iran. He was the sole US career diplomat to be a core member of the US nuclear negotiating team from its 2010 start to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement with Iran, serving as the team's Iran subject matter expert and also as the State Department's first Persian Language Spokesperson. He was also the first US diplomat to serve in the political section of the newly reopened US Embassy Kabul in late 2001. In addition, he served as Director of the Iran Regional Presence Office (IRPO) at US Consulate Dubai, the State Department's main field office for monitoring Iran. His overseas tours include Nigeria, Syria, the UAE (twice), Azerbaijan, the United Kingdom, and Jordan, where in his final tour he served as Political Counselor. His only Washington assignment was as Director of the Office for Middle East and Asia in the Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR).
Education
B.A. in Literature at Dartmouth College
Languages
Farsi, Dari, Arabic, French, Azeri
Job Titles:
- Managing Director and Editor - in - Chief of MEI 's Policy Center
- Managing Director and Editor - in - Chief, the Policy Center
Alistair Taylor is the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of MEI's Policy Center. He holds a B.A. in history from the University of Chicago and an M.A. in political science from Sabanci University in Istanbul, where he specialized in Turkish foreign and defense policy. Before joining MEI, Alistair worked at Atlantic Media, the World Bank, and a British emerging markets research firm.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow
- Distinguished Professor
Ambassador Barbara K. Bodine is a distinguished professor in the practice of diplomacy and the director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Her 33-year Foreign Service career was spent primarily on the broader Arab Gulf region with a dual focus on security/counterterrorism and governance/development. Her first assignment in the Department of State's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs was country officer for Yemen. She returned to that office as deputy director 10 years later, and served as US ambassador to Yemen from 1997 through much of 2001. She visited Yemen regularly until 2014. Other overseas assignments include Kuwait and Iraq (twice). In 1991 she received the Secretary of State's Award for valor for her work in occupied Kuwait.
Ambassador Bodine also served as coordinator for counterterrorism operations and acting overall coordinator for counterterrorism, director of East African affairs and dean of the School of Professional Studies at the Foreign Service Institute. Since leaving the Foreign Service, she has held a number of fellowship and academic positions at the Kennedy School of Government, MIT, and, for seven years was a lecturer in public and international affairs and director of the Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. She regularly teaches courses, lectures and provides public commentary on Yemen and events in the region.
She is a former member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Diplomacy, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a regent emerita of the University of California. She is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Ambassador Leaf served as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from May 2022 to January 2025, overseeing 21 diplomatic posts, $7.5 billion in foreign assistance, and policies and programs from Morocco to Yemen. Ambassador Leaf led multilateral work with regional and European partners to stabilize Libya; deepen ties with Iraq while contesting the influence of Iranian-affiliated militias; drive a common approach to ending the conflict in Sudan; and increase pressure on Yemen's Houthis to end attacks on Red Sea shipping. In the aftermath of Hamas' brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Ambassador Leaf acted as Secretary of State Blinken's key advisor on intensive diplomatic engagement to foster conditions for a ceasefire and hostage release, address critical humanitarian needs for Gaza and promote a viable approach to post-conflict security and governance there. The first U.S. diplomat to go to Syria since the the US embassy's closure in 2012, Ambassador Leaf set the terms for tough-minded U.S. engagement with the new leadership in Damascus following the fall of the Assad regime.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Military Fellow
Anthony (Tony) C. Zinni is a retired four star United States Marine Corps general. He served his country in numerous diplomatic roles, as the U.S. special envoy to Israel and the Palestinian Authority and in missions to Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia. General Zinni retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2000, after a distinguished 39-year career that took him to over 70 countries in many command assignments. In his final tour of duty, from 1997 to 2000, he was commander-in-chief of the U.S. Central Command. In his military career General Zinni earned 23 personal awards and 37 unit, service, and campaign awards.
General Zinni joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1961 and was commissioned an infantry second lieutenant in 1965, after completing his undergraduate degree in economics at Villanova University. He earned graduate degrees in international relations from Salve Regina University and in management and supervision from Central Michigan University. General Zinni has been awarded honorary doctorates from Villanova University; the College of William and Mary and the Maine Maritime Academy.
He has held academic positions that include the Stanley Chair in Ethics at the Virginia Military Institute, the Nimitz Chair at the University of California, Berkeley, the Hofheimer Chair at the Joint Forces Staff College, and the Harriman Professorship of Government at the Reves Center for International Studies at the College of William and Mary. He has worked with the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and the Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva.
He was Chairman of the Board of BAE Systems Inc., and a member of the board of Dyncorp International before being appointed an executive vice president. He also served as president of International Operations for M.I.C. Industries, Inc. General Zinni is the author of two best-selling books on his military career and foreign affairs: Battle Ready and The Battle for Peace. His most recent book, Leading the Charge, was published in 2009.
Anton Mardasov is an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Institute. He is also a non-resident military affairs expert at the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) focusing on Syria, Iraq and extremist organizations. Anton is the author of numerous articles in the Russian media, several studies and chapters of books on Russian strategy in Syria and the Syrian opposition, as well as Moscow's relations with Iran, Lebanon, and Egypt. His articles and commentary have appeared in Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera, Asharq Al-Awsat and others. In the past, Anton has been a consultant to the analytical departments of the security services of two oil companies. He is based in Moscow.
Job Titles:
- Policy and Program Associate
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow
In January 2021 Ambassador Leaf joined the Biden administration as Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa and Special Assistant to the President, where she led interagency decisions to end the conflict in Yemen, recalibrate relations with Saudi Arabia, leverage pressure on Iran to counter its use of proxy regional militias, and realign US policy to enable greater humanitarian assistance to the people of Syria while increasing pressure on the Al Assad regime. From 2018-2021 as Ruth and Sid Lapidus Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy Ambassador Leaf directed the Beth and David Geduld Program on Arab Politics, speaking and writing regularly on Iraq, Iran and Gulf politics, and broader U.S. national security policy.
Ambassador Leaf was confirmed as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates in November 2014 and served in Abu Dhabi until March 2018, overseeing a critical diplomatic mission focused on trade, and deepening defense, counterterrorism, counter-proliferation and law enforcement cooperation. Ambassador Leaf substantially expanded US-UAE bilateral efforts to address the region's conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Libya and Iraq, and provided counsel to a community of 1,500 U.S. businesses in the UAE.
From 2013-2014 Ambassador Leaf served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Arabian Peninsula. As Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq from 2011-2013 Ambassador Leaf oversaw the transformation of U.S. Mission Iraq to a wholly civilian-led enterprise, as U.S. combat troops departed the country. Leaving an assignment as Political Minister Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Italy, Ambassador Leaf directed the 100-member U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team in Basrah, Iraq from 2010-2011. Ambassador Leaf became the first Director of the Department of State's Office of Iranian Affairs in 2006, establishing an overseas network of Iran specialists and Farsi speakers to regain expertise lost across the U.S. government since the 1979 rupture in relations between Washington and Tehran.
Previous assignments included Sarajevo, Paris, Cairo, Tunis, as Kuwait Desk Officer during the first Gulf War, Jerusalem, the Department's Operations Center, and Port-au-Prince. Awarded the Distinguished Honor Award by Secretary Blinken, Ambassador Leaf received numerous Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards during her career.
Ambassador Leaf received a B.A. in Government from the College of William and Mary
and M.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. She speaks Arabic, French, Italian, and Serbo-Croatian.
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow and Head of the Syria Initiative
- Senior Fellow, Syria Initiative
Lister is the author of "The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency" (Oxford University Press, 2016). His research focuses on terrorism and insurgency across the Levant. As a senior consultant to the Syria Track II Dialogue Initiative, he managed nearly three years of intensive face-to-face engagement with the leaderships of over 100 Syrian armed opposition groups.
Charles Lister is a senior fellow and head of the Syria Initiative at the Middle East Institute. His work focuses on all-things Syria and on issues of terrorism and insurgency across the Levant. Within MEI, Lister currently directs two major international initiatives focused on Syria:
Resolving the Detainee Crisis is a joint initiative with the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR), which seeks to help the international community resolve the unprecedented challenges associated with the detention of 9,000 terrorist fighters and 45,000 associated family members in northeast Syria. So far, more than 40 governments and INGOs have engaged in high-level multilateral policy talks in London, Washington D.C, Vienna and Malta, resulting in decisive policy progress.
In collaboration with the Atlantic Council and the European Institute of Peace, the Syria Strategy Project is coordinating discussions involving more than 80 subject matter experts and 25 governments and Syrian governance entities aimed at developing a holistic and realistic multilateral approach to resolving Syria's long-running crisis.
Prior to joining MEI, Lister was a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Qatar and a Senior Consultant to the multinationally-backed Syria Track II Dialogue Initiative, in which he managed nearly three years of intensive face-to-face engagement with the leaderships of over 100 Syrian armed opposition groups. He has previously held other positions at the Brookings Institution and at IHS Jane's in London, UK. Lister is a Consultant to the United Nations' International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) for Syria and a regular consultant and expert witness in counter-terrorism prosecutions and with law enforcement bodies in the United States, Europe and Australia.
Lister's critically acclaimed book, The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency, was published in February 2016 by Oxford University Press. He has also published The Islamic State: A Brief Introduction (Brookings Press, 2015) and Winning the Battle, Losing the War: Addressing the Drivers of Non-State Armed Actors and Extremist Groups (ed.) (MEI, 2019). He is now working on a fourth book on Syria, commissioned by Oxford University Press.
Education
1st Class MA Honours in International Relations, University of St. Andrews
Countries of Expertise
Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon
Issues of Expertise
Terrorism, Insurgency, al-Qa'ida, ISIS, Military & Defense
Languages
English, French
Sample Interview
Job Titles:
- Chief Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Associate Editor of the Middle East Journal
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow
- Lebanon Fellow
Fadi Nicholas Nassar is the U.S.-Lebanon Fellow at MEI and an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and Director of the Institute for Social Justice and Conflict Resolution at the Lebanese American University.
Anne B. Keiser, daughter of the late George Camp Keiser, the founder of the Middle East Institute, has been a member of its Board of Governors since 1990. Ms. Keiser is a freelance travel photographer based in Washington, D.C. From 1972 to 1986, she worked at the National Geographic Society as a photo editor and still photographer in its television division.
As a freelance photographer, she has documented the humanitarian work of famed mountain climber Sir Edmund Hillary, who devoted his life to improving the lives of the Sherpa people of the Everest region of Nepal. She has written three books on this topic, including Sir Edmund Hillary & the People of Everest, published as part of the fiftieth-anniversary celebrations of the first ascent of Mount Everest by Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa.
Ms. Keiser currently serves on the boards of Chorus America, the Choral Arts Society of Washington, the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation, Holton-Arms School, the International League of Conservation Photographers, and the Greater Himalayan Foundation. She is a National Council of the World Wildlife Fund U.S. member and the Smithsonian Women's Committee member.
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow, Economics and Energy Initiative
Job Titles:
- Vice President for Arts & Culture
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Military Fellow
Job Titles:
- Vice President for Policy
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Military Fellow
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Military Fellow
Job Titles:
- Senior Executive Assistant to the President & Board Secretary
Job Titles:
- Director, Arts & Culture Center
Job Titles:
- Program and Events Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Military Fellow
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Military Fellow
Job Titles:
- Vice President for International Engagement
Job Titles:
- Editor of Digital Publications
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow and Book Series Editor
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Policy
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Military Fellow
On March 10, 2025, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the president of Syria, and Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, signed a historic agreement, ending a long-running divide between Damascus and the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. Now, two months after the deal was signed, how far has it progressed, and what are the main obstacles and disputes between the parties during this transitional phase?
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Corporate Relations
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Communications and Events