Jon B. Alterman

Jon B. Alterman is director and senior fellow of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Prior to joining CSIS, he served as a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and as a special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. He is a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel and served as an expert adviser to the Iraq Study Group (also known as the Baker-Hamilton Commission).

In addition to his policy work, he teaches Middle Eastern studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the George Washington University. Before entering government, he was a scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace and at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Alterman has lectured in more than 25 countries on subjects related to the Middle East and U.S. policy toward the region. His opinion pieces have appeared in the The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Asharq al-Awsat, and other major publications. He is on the Board of Advisory Editors of The Middle East Journal, is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Arab Media and Society, and is a former international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he is now a life member.