Dr Ranj Alaaldin

Dr Ranj Alaaldin is a foreign policy specialist with more than two decades of experience working across the Middle East, the United States and Europe. His work focuses on international security, Western engagement with the Middle East, Iran, Iraq, the Gulf states, armed non-state actors, post-conflict reconstruction and Track II diplomacy. His work also engages closely with UK foreign and security policy, examining Britain’s role in the Middle East and wider global strategic posture, and the interplay between domestic policy, national security and foreign policy.

He has held positions at Oxford University, the World Bank, Columbia University, King's College London and the Brookings Institution. Dr Alaaldin has designed and led high-level research, policy and diplomatic initiatives, bringing together senior decision-makers, practitioners and international institutions. He was awarded a $400,000 grant by the Carnegie Corporation of New York for a project on proxy warfare, working with stakeholders in the United States, Europe and the Middle East to develop policies for Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen. He has also received funding for projects on public sector reforms in conflict-afflicted countries, the demobilisation of militias and ISIS recruitment strategies.

Dr Alaaldin has presented his work at the House of Commons and the UK Foreign Affairs Committee, and has published in academic journals and edited volumes, in addition to writing for the Telegraph, the New York Times, Conservative Home, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs and the Wall Street Journal. He obtained his PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he also studied international law.