What’s Next in Yemen?

Announced by the University of Pittsburgh:

ESIA Practitioner-in-Residence Roopa Rangaswamy will speak to four leading experts about the conflict in Yemen. The discussion will examine current trends and dynamics as well as the trajectory for 2023 and beyond.

The Middle East Policy Forum is presented with the generous support of ExxonMobil.

Speakers
Peter Salisbury is a freelance writer and researcher. He was the Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Yemen. He has more than a decade of wide-ranging experience as a print, online, and broadcast journalist. He has consulted to the United Kingdom’s Department of International Development, United Nations, and World Bank, and he has published a series of highly regarded papers on Yemen for Chatham House, the London-headquartered think tank where he is also a senior consulting fellow.

Ahmed Nagi is a senior analyst for Yemen at the International Crisis Group, where he covers the conflict dynamics, politics, security, and the regional role in the country. Prior to his position at the ICG, Nagi was a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, where he covered the conflict in Yemen, the borderland dynamics, and local governance transformations, among other issues. Besides, he was the research manager at the Institute of Citizenship and Diversity Management at Adyan Foundation, Lebanon. He was also a country coordinator on Yemen and Oman at Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem), Sweden, and a senior consultant at Insight Source Center for Research and Consulting, Yemen. Nagi holds a Master’s degree in public governance from the University of Granada, Spain.

Yazeed al-Jeddawy is a research coordinator at Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies. He has co-authored papers and policy briefs on youth, arts, transitional justice, development and peace-building in Yemen. He previously worked as a coordinator of youth-focused projects/programs at Youth Without Borders Organisation for Development (YWBOD), and as Education Program Manager at Nahda Makers Organization. Al-Jeddawy has also served as the MENA Regional Representative of the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY) for two consecutive terms between 2018 and 2022.

Annelle Sheline is a Research Fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute. She completed her PhD in political science at George Washington University, where her research focused on religious and political authority in the Middle East and North Africa.

Roopa Rangaswamy is a national security professional with over 25 years of experience supporting senior U.S. government leaders. She recently completed an interagency rotation at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and also served as a Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East at the National Intelligence Council. Roopa has held a variety of foreign policy management and operational leadership positions during her two decade career at the Department of State. She served as Chief of Staff to the Counselor in 2021 and as a Deputy Executive Secretary from 2018-2019. From 2014-2018, she managed the Middle East portfolio on the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff. Previous assignments include Director of the Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, Chief of Staff to the Special Coordinator for Egypt, and Senior Advisor on Iran in the Near East Bureau from 2009-2014. Other career highlights include special assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, director of the office responsible for terrorism designations and multilateral issues in the Counterterrorism Bureau, and Middle East nonproliferation officer in the International Security and Nonproliferation Bureau.