William Lawrence

Director, North Africa Project
Washington DC, USA

Dr. Bill Lawrence directs the North Africa Project for the International Crisis Group and has twenty-six years experience working in and on the Maghreb and Egypt. Until recently, he was Senior Advisor for Global Engagement in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES).  There he co-created and implemented the U.S. Science Envoy Program and advised the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on core elements of President Obama’s Global Engagement Initiative following the Cairo speech. He co-created and managed the Global Innovation Through Science and Technology (GIST) Program, including the initiatives on job-creating innovation and the Maghreb Digital Library.  He is the co-founder of the State Department’s Global Muslim Science Partnerships Program, best known for its organisation of the 2007 Kuwait Conference on Women Leaders in Science, Technology, and Engineering; the Fairhaven Project (for Israeli and Palestinian at-risk youth); the Hurghada Project (in oceanography and biodiversity); underwater seismic and archaeological mapping of the Bay of Algiers; and four science diplomacy films: One, Kussuf, Path of Totality, and One Small Step, One Giant Leap, for which he was an Executive Producer.  He was Co-Chair of the U.S.-Egypt Science and Technology Development Fund for four years, which tripled in size under his stewardship.  He directed programs under Science and Technology Cooperation Agreements with every North African state and served as NATO Project Director for Sahara Winds in Morocco and Mauritania.

He travelled to Libya frequently in recent years, including helping negotiate and implement the first bilateral agreement with Libya in several decades and serving at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.  He served as the State Department’s officer in charge of Libyan and Tunisian Affairs (2005-2006) and of Iraq reconstruction (2003-2004) and as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research (2006).  In addition, Dr. Lawrence was the 2008-9 Goldman Sachs Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University and has taught at Georgetown University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh.  He has an MALD and PhD in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, where he specialised in North African History, Politics, and Culture; Comparative and Developmental Political Analysis; Economic Development; and Islamic Law and Social Change, with half of his masters-level and PhD coursework at Harvard University Center for Middle East Studies and Harvard Law School.  A former Peace Corps Volunteer (Morocco), Fulbright Scholar (Tunisia/Algeria), Development Consultant (U.S., Egypt), Center for Arabic Studies Abroad Fellow (Egypt), Arabic Translator and Interpreter (short stories, Olympic Games), Documentary Filmmaker (Marrakech Inshallah, Moroccans in Boston), and Music Producer, he co-produced or participated in the production of 14 albums of North African music.