Joost Hiltermann

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

Crisis Group role:

Since 2002, Joost Hiltermann has managed a team of analysts based in the Middle and North Africa to conduct research and write policy-focused reports on factors that increase the risk of and drive armed conflict. The crisis in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iran – both internal situation and nuclear question – are Crisis Group’s three priorities in the region, but research is conducted as well in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

Areas of expertise:

• Iraq: political transition, constitutional process, the situation of the Kurds, Kirkuk and other disputed territories, oil   
• Jordan
• Yemen
• Israel-Palestine
• Middle East region: security threats, authoritarianism and democratisation, political Islam

Professional background:

• Executive Director, Arms Division of Human Rights Watch (1994-2002)
• Director of Iraq Documents Project, HRW (1992-1994)
• Research Director, Al-Haq (Ramallah) (1988-1990)
• Analyst, Al-Haq (Ramallah) (1985-1988)
• PhD, Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Publications and media:

• "Iraq on the Edge", The New York Review of Books, 1 November 2009
• "Iraq: A Bigger Threat than Bombs", The New York Review of Books Blog, 31 October 2009
• "Iraq's Real Deadline", Foreign Policy, 29 June 2009
• "Kurdish crude bails out Baghdad", Foreign Policy, 13 May 2009
• "The US Exit from Iraq: How to Steer Clear of Danger", The Christian Science Monitor
  27 March 2009
• Iraq: "Everyone Wants a Piece of Kirkuk, the Golden Prize", The National, 26 February 2009
• "Kirkuk and the 'Grand Bargain' ", with Michael Walid Hanna, The Globe and Mail, 11 November 2008
• "Iraq's Kurds Have to Choose", The Globe and Mail, 30 July 2008
• "Frieden oder Freiheit", Le Monde Diplomatique, 11 July 2008
• "مستقبل الأكراد في العراق", Le Monde Diplomatique, 9 June 2008
• "To Protect or to Project? Iraqi Kurds and Their Future", Middle East Report, 6 June 2008
• "Halabja: The Politics of Memory", openDemocracy, 14 March 2008
• "Eyes Wide Shut", with Peter Harling, Le Monde Diplomatique, May 2007
• "Why 'Soft Partition' of Iraq Won't Work", The Christian Science Monitor, 12 March 2007
• "Al-Zarqawi Legacy Is Alive And Kicking", ABC News Online, 9 June 2006
• "Iraq: Kurd Leaders Must Maintain Unified Front", The Boston Globe, 10 May 2006
• "External Forces on Iraq's New Government", The Christian Science Monitor, 19 April 2006
• "Preventing Iraq's Disintegration", The Baltimore Sun, 5 March 2006
• "Think Small in Iraq", with Robert Malley, The New York Times, 30 November 2004
• Frequent interviews with major media outlets, including BBC, CNN, The New York Times, Financial Times
• Two books: A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja (Cambridge, 2007), and Behind the Intifada: Labor and Women’s Movements in the Occupied Territories (Princeton, 1991)

Languages:

• English
• Dutch
• Arabic

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