Rapid Response Roundtable on the Israel-Iran Conflict with Mona Yacoubian
June 20th, 2025 9:30AM -10:30AM
As the Israel-Iran conflict expands, with attack and counterattack and a growing civilian death toll, join us for a rapid response roundtable on June 20 at 9:30am PDT with Mona Yacoubian, senior adviser and director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). A seasoned expert on the Middle East, Yacoubian will provide insight into the drivers of the current conflict, its regional and global implications, and explore policy options for the United States and the international community.
This free event is open to current members of the World Affairs Council. If you are not a member, consider joining here and take advantage of all our membership benefits like this program!
About Our Speaker
Mona Yacoubian is senior adviser and director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She has more than thirty years of experience working on the Middle East and North Africa, with a focus on conflict analysis, governance and stabilization challenges, and conflict prevention. She was previously vice president of the Middle East and North Africa Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), where she managed field programming in Iraq, Libya, and Tunisia as well as Washington, D.C.–based staff. In 2019, she served as executive director of the congressionally appointed Syria Study Group. From 2014 to 2017, Yacoubian served as deputy assistant administrator in the Middle East Bureau at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she had responsibility for programming across Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. Prior to joining USAID, Yacoubian was a senior adviser at the Stimson Center and a special adviser on the Middle East at USIP. From 1990 to 1998, Yacoubian served as the North Africa analyst in the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and various other outlets, and she has testified to Congress six times. Yacoubian was a Fulbright scholar in Syria, where she studied Arabic at the University of Damascus from 1985 to 1986. She has held an international affairs fellowship with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and is a CFR member. She earned a master’s in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s in public policy from Duke University.