Experts

The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the Printable CFR Experts Guide.

Africa

John Campbell

Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies

Career Foreign Service officer and former ambassador to Nigeria. Political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria during South Africa's first non-racial elections. His book Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink was published by Rowman & Littlefield in November 2010. The second edition is coming soon. He writes the blog "Africa in Transition" and edits the Nigeria Security Tracker.

Isobel Coleman

Senior Fellow and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative; Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program

Author of the book Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East (Random House, 2010). Contributing author to Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President (Brookings Institution Press, 2008). Coauthor of Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security (Hoover Institution Press, 2006).

Jendayi Frazer

Adjunct Senior Fellow for Africa Studies

Distinguished public service professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, U.S. ambassador to South Africa, and special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs in the George W. Bush administration.

North Africa

Elliott Abrams

Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies

Former senior director for democracy and human rights, senior director for the Near East, and deputy national security adviser handling Middle East affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Former assistant secretary of state for UN affairs, human rights, and Latin America in the Reagan administration.

Isobel Coleman

Senior Fellow and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative; Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program

Author of the book Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East (Random House, 2010). Contributing author to Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President (Brookings Institution Press, 2008). Coauthor of Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security (Hoover Institution Press, 2006).

Robert M. Danin

Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies

Former head, Office of the Quartet Representative, Tony Blair, in Jerusalem. Former State Department and National Security Council official with over twenty years government experience specializing in the Middle East. Currently researching and writing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Arab uprisings, and U.S. interests in the Middle East. Advises Quartet Representative Tony Blair.

Algeria

Elliott Abrams

Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies

Former senior director for democracy and human rights, senior director for the Near East, and deputy national security adviser handling Middle East affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Former assistant secretary of state for UN affairs, human rights, and Latin America in the Reagan administration.

Libya

Elliott Abrams

Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies

Former senior director for democracy and human rights, senior director for the Near East, and deputy national security adviser handling Middle East affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Former assistant secretary of state for UN affairs, human rights, and Latin America in the Reagan administration.

Morocco

Elliott Abrams

Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies

Former senior director for democracy and human rights, senior director for the Near East, and deputy national security adviser handling Middle East affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Former assistant secretary of state for UN affairs, human rights, and Latin America in the Reagan administration.

Tunisia

Elliott Abrams

Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies

Former senior director for democracy and human rights, senior director for the Near East, and deputy national security adviser handling Middle East affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Former assistant secretary of state for UN affairs, human rights, and Latin America in the Reagan administration.

Southern Africa

Jendayi Frazer

Adjunct Senior Fellow for Africa Studies

Distinguished public service professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, U.S. ambassador to South Africa, and special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs in the George W. Bush administration.

South Africa

A. Michael Spence

Distinguished Visiting Fellow

Economist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001. Author of The Next Convergence, released in May 2011. Chairman of the Commission on Growth and Development.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Isobel Coleman

Senior Fellow and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative; Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program

Author of the book Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East (Random House, 2010). Contributing author to Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President (Brookings Institution Press, 2008). Coauthor of Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security (Hoover Institution Press, 2006).

Jendayi Frazer

Adjunct Senior Fellow for Africa Studies

Distinguished public service professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, U.S. ambassador to South Africa, and special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs in the George W. Bush administration.