Robert Malley

Middle East and North Africa Program Director
Washington, DC, USA

Crisis Group role:

Robert Malley directs analysts based in Amman, Cairo, Beirut, Tel Aviv and Baghdad. Together they report on the political, social and economic factors affecting the risk of conflict and make policy recommendations to address these threats. The team covers events from Iran to Morocco, with a heavy focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the situation in Iraq, and Islamist movements throughout the region. Robert also covers developments in the United States that affect policy toward the Middle East.    

Areas of expertise:

• Arab-Israeli conflict
• Palestinian politics
• Iraq
• North Africa

Professional background:

• Special Assistant to President Clinton for Arab-Israeli Affairs (1998-2001)
• Executive Assistant to Samuel R. Berger, National Security Advisor (1996-1998)
• Director for Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, National Security Council (1994-1996)

Publications and media:

• "Depuis un an, la diplomatie américaine fait du surplace au Proche-Orient", in Le Monde, 23 January 2010
• "Israel & Palestine: Can They Start Over?", with Hussein Agha in The New York Review of Books, 3 December 2009
• "The Two-State Solution Doesn’t Solve Anything", with Hussein Agha in The New York Times, 11 August 2009
• "Obama and the Middle East", with Hussein Agha in The New York Review of Books, 14 May 2009
• Gaza: "Ein Sieg für die Hamas, ein Sieg für Israel", Süddeutsche Zeitung, 15 January 2009
• Gaza: "Où s'arrêtera l'offensive israélienne?", Le Monde, 7 January 2008
• "Peace Fills a Vacuum", with Hussein Agha, The New York Times, 3 June 2008
• "Danse macabre au Proche-Orient", with Hussein Agha, Le Figaro, 3 February 2008
• "Defusing the Gaza Time Bomb", The Boston Globe, 20 January 2008 (republished in The International Herald Tribune, 22 January 2008) 
• "Middle East Triangle", with Hussein Agha, The Washington Post, 17 January 2008 (republished in The Guardian, 18 January 2008)
• "France-Syrie, l'heure de vérité", with Peter Harling, Le Monde, 21 December 2007
• "Dialoguer avec la Syrie, une nécessité", with Peter Harling, Le Monde, 2 June 2007
• "Forget Pelosi. What about Syria?", Los Angeles Times, 11 April 2007
• "Palestine, l'Europe face à ses responsabilités", Le Monde, 14 March 2007
• Testimony to Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Iraq, Washington DC, 23 January 2007
• "Containing a Shiite Symbol of Hope", with Peter Harling, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 October 2006
• "Whose Move in the Middle East?", with Gareth Evans, The Washington Post, 14 October 2006
• "La fragile tregua libanese e i tormenti di Israele", La Repubblica, 28 September 2006
• "The U.S. Must Look to its Own Mideast Interests", with Aaron David Miller, International Herald Tribune, 26 September 2006
• "A New Middle East", The New York Review of Books, 21 September 2006
• "Diplomacy Is the Only Way", with Gareth Evans, Australian Financial Review, 3 August 2006
• "Climbing Out of the Lebanon Abyss", with Gareth Evans, Slate, 28 July 2006
• "Time to Start Talking", Time Magazine, 24 July 2006
• "Trois guerres et une diplomatie absente", Le Monde, 21 July 2006
• "Comment sortir de la crise", with Gareth Evans, Jeune Afrique, 16 July 2006
• "How to Curb the Tension in Gaza", with Gareth Evans, Financial Times, 6 July 2006
• "حماس وإسرائيل.. هل تجدان سكنا مشتركا؟", with Aaron David Miller, Asharq Alawsat, 16 May 2006
• "For Israel and Hamas, a Case for Accommodation", with Aaron David Miller, The Washington Post, 15 May 2006
• "Avoiding Failure with Hamas", International Herald Tribune, 10 April 2006
• "Iraq: The Enemy We Hardly Know", with Peter Harling, The Boston Globe, 19 March 2006
• "Hamas: The Perils of Power", with Hussein Agha, The New York Review of Books, 9 March 2006
• "Making The Best of Hamas' Victory", The Baltimore Sun, 20 February 2006
• "Prendre l'ascendant sur le Hamas", Le Monde, 24 January 2006
• "Hamas Steps into a Complex Landscape", with Hussein Agha, The Boston Globe and The Guardian, 24 January 2006
• "Le pouvoir palestinien à bout de souffle", with Hussein Agha in Le Monde Diplomatique, 12 January 2006
• Interviews with major media outlets around the world, including BBC, CNN, Radio France International
• The Call from Algeria: Third Worldism, Revolution and the Turn to Islam, November 1996

Languages:

• English (native)
• French (fluent)

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