Gregory Aftandilian

Senior Fellow for the Middle East
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Gregory Aftandilian is a specialist on Middle East affairs and U.S. foreign policy, having spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill. He was foreign policy advisor to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-08), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-04), and foreign policy fellow to Senator Edward Kennedy (1999). Prior to these positions, Mr. Aftandilian worked for 13 years as a Middle East analyst at the U.S. Department of State where he was a recipient of the Department's Superior Honor Award for his analyses on Egypt. His other government experiences include analytical work on Middle East affairs for the U.S. Department of Defense and the Library of Congress.
Mr. Aftandilian also has extensive academic and consulting experiences. He was a research fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (2006-07) and an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York (1991-92). He has been an associate of the Middle East Center at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and an adjunct faculty member at Boston University and Northeastern University, teaching courses on Middle East politics and U.S. foreign policy. His publications include: Egypt's Bid for Arab Leadership: Implications for U.S. Policy (1993); Looking Forward: An Integrated Strategy for Supporting Democracy and Human Rights in Egypt (2009); Presidential Succession Scenarios in Egypt and Their Impact on U.S.-Egyptian Strategic Relations (2011), and "World War II as an Enhancer of Armenian-American Second Generation Identity". Mr. Aftandilian worked as a consultant on Egyptian affairs for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (2005-2006) and was a counter-terrorism consultant for an academic project at Boston University supported by a grant from the Office of Naval Research (2008-2011). In addition, he has lectured widely on Middle East affairs and has been a panelist at various think tanks and institutes, including the Center for National Policy.

Mr. Aftandilian holds a B.A. in History from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago, and an M.S. in International Relations from the London School of Economics. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, he grew up in the Boston area. He has been a resident of northern Virginia since 1983.

Recent Blog Posts

• Egypt: Deep Societal Divisions Show No Signs of Abating
  May 16, 2013
  
  

• Syria: The Elusive Political Solution
  May 7, 2013
  
  

• Reflections On My Hometown Under Lockdown
  Apr 22, 2013
  
  

• Egypt's New Regime and the Future of the U.S.-Egyptian Strategic Relationship
  By: Gregory Aftandillian
  Apr 14, 2013
  
  

• The Iraq War And The Failure Of The U.S. Political Establishment
  Mar 22, 2013
  
  

• With The U.S. Image In Egypt Waning, Secretary Kerry Is Likely To Press President Morsi On Democratization
  Feb 28, 2013
  
  

• Egypt: Two years after the revolution, authoritarianism lingers on
  Feb 13, 2013
  
  

• Egypt: More instability ahead as Each Side Digs in
  Feb 5, 2013
  
  

• Israeli elections and U.S. peace process opportunities
  Jan 24, 2013
  
  

• Syria: Alawite dilemmas in the aftermath of Assad's speech
  Jan 9, 2013
  
  

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