Guide to Specialists

Mona Yacoubian
Special Adviser, Muslim World Initiative, Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention

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Phone: (202) 429-3868

e-mail: myacoubian@usip.org

Languages: Arabic, French

Mona Yacoubian is a special adviser to the Institute’s Muslim World Initiative, where she provides analysis and policy advice on the Middle East and North Africa. She has worked on a broad range of issues in the region, including democratization and civil society promotion, as well as counterterrorism strategy. Yacoubian has consulted for a number of organizations, including the World Bank, the Department of State, RAND Corporation, and Freedom House.

From 1990 to 1997, Yacoubian served as the North Africa analyst in the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research, where she focused on the crisis in Algeria. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), she is a frequent commentator on leading U.S. and international news outlets. She was a Fulbright scholar in Syria and an international affairs fellow at CFR, where she published a monograph titled "Algeria’s Struggle for Democracy."

Yacoubian earned a B.A. in public policy from Duke University and a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Publications:

• "Moving Forward in Lebanon After Doha: Bridging Deep Divides," Middle East Progress, July 2008.
• Dealing With Damascus: Seeking a Greater Return on U.S.-Syria Relations, co-authored with Scott Lasensky. Council on Foreign Relations, June 2008.
• Facing the Abyss: Lebanon's Deadly Political Stalemate
  USIPeace Briefing (February 2008)
• "Building Momentum for Reform: The Islamist-Secular Alliance in Yemen," The Challenge of Islamists for EU and US Policies: Conflict, Stability and Reform." (SWP and USIP, November 2007).
• Engaging Islamists and Promoting Democracy: A Preliminary Assessment
  Special Report (September 2007)
• Syria's Relations with Iran
  USIPeace Briefing (May 2007)
• "Rethinking the 'War on Terror:' New Approaches to Conflict Prevention and Management in the Post-9/11 World," Leasing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World USIP Press (2007)
• Syria's Relations with Iraq
  USIPeace Briefing (April 2007)
• Syria's Role in Lebanon
  USIPeace Briefing (November 2006)
• "Unconventional Approaches to an Unconventional Threat: A Counter-Epidemic Strategy," Mapping the Jihadist Threat: The War on Terror Since 9/11. The Aspen Institute (2006)
• Rethinking the War on Terror
  Peace Watch (April/May 2006)
• Democracy and Islamist Parties: The Arab Experience
  The Aspen Institute (June 2006)
• Yacoubian: Syria Seems to Believe Pressure for Change Easing
  Transcript: Interview with the Council on Foreign Relations (March 10, 2006).
• Syria and Political Change II
  USIPeace Briefing (March 2006)
• Syria and Political Change
  USIPeace Briefing (December 2005)
• Rethinking the War on Terror with Paul Stares
  USIPeace Briefing (September 2005)
• Terrorism as Virus with Paul Stares, The Washington Post (August 23, 2005).
• Promoting Middle East Democracy II: Arab Initiatives
  Special Report (May 2005)
• Promoting Middle East Democracy: European Initiatives
  Special Report (October 2004)
• The Broader Middle East and North Africa: Major Challenges Ahead
  Newsbyte, June 8, 2004
• "Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, Libya, and Tunisia country reports," 2004 Freedom in the World Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties (2004).

Congressional Testimonies:

• Syria: Dilemmas of Engagement
  May 21, 2007
• Fostering Democracy in the Middle East: Defeating Terrorism with Ballots
  May 17, 2005

Interviews

• Yacoubian: Linkages between Special UN Tribunal, Lebanon, and Syria Interview with Bernard Gwertzman, Council on Foreign Relations, June 1, 2007

• Yacoubian: Syria Seems to Believe Pressure for Change Easing
  Interview with Bernard Gwertzman, Council on Foreign Relations, March 10, 2006