Carnegie Announces New Director for Middle East Center

WASHINGTON—The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace announced today the appointment of Dr. Maha Yahya as the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

“I am extremely pleased that Maha will lead our Middle East Center,” said Vice President for Studies Marwan Muasher. “Maha’s research on some of the most vital challenges facing the Middle East has continued to move the center forward, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with her in this new role.”

Yahya joined the Carnegie Middle East Center in 2014 as a senior associate, where her work has focused on citizenship, pluralism, and social justice. More recently, she has focused on issues surrounding identity politics, refugees, and migration challenges in the Middle East and Europe. She has previously worked with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia as well as the United Nations Development Program in Lebanon, where she was the principal author of the National Human Development Report 2008-2009: Toward a Citizen’s State.

“At a time when the region is facing devastating conflicts and critical challenges to its states and societies, I appreciate the opportunity to direct the Carnegie Middle East Center, and contribute to the scholarship addressing these challenges,” Yahya said. “I am proud of the work that my colleagues and I have produced over the years—both in Beirut and in Carnegie’s Middle East Program in Washington—and I look forward to continuing our research with the aim of shaping policy responses in the years ahead.” 

“I am delighted that Maha will be leading the Carnegie Middle East Center,” said Carnegie President William J. Burns. “She has been a tremendous asset to the institution in the two and a half years that she has been with Carnegie, and I am delighted that we will be able to continue to count on her leadership and knowledge in her new role.”

The Carnegie Middle East Center, opened in 2006, is the #1 think tank in the Middle East, according to the University of Pennsylvania’s Global Go To Think Tank Rankings.