Will Todman

Chief of Staff, Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department; and Senior Fellow, Middle East Program
Will Todman

Will Todman is the chief of staff of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and a senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He was previously deputy director of the Middle East Program. He has over a decade of experience working on conflict, governance, and displacement in the Middle East, and has conducted field research in 12 countries across the region. Will has written for, contributed to, and commented on leading outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, CBS, and CNN, and he has testified to the UK Parliament. He has also taught and lectured graduate students at various universities. Before joining CSIS in 2016, Will worked at the Institute for the Study of International Migration, for the office of the UN special envoy to Syria, and at the British Embassy in Beirut. Will is a Penn Kemble fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, a Global Diversity in International Affairs fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a fellow at the Centre for Syrian Studies at St. Andrews University. He also co-founded a nonprofit organization that works with refugees and immigrants in the Washington DC area, which he led for seven years. Will holds a BA in Arabic and modern Hebrew from Oxford University and an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University, where he studied Persian intensively. He is also proficient in French and Spanish.

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The Price of Exclusion

This installment of Charting the Middle East spotlights how Western aid cuts have rendered the current international response to Syrian refugees obsolete.

Newsletter by Will Todman — October 7, 2026

State of Play

Is the U.S.-Philippines Alliance Really at a Historic High?

On the sidelines of the Manila Strategy Forum, Amb. John Negroponte and Greg Poling join Will to assess the strength of the U.S.-Philippines alliance, the drivers of Filipinos' positive attitudes towards the U.S., and what might threaten bilateral ties going forward.

Podcast Episode by Will Todman and Gregory B. Poling — September 11, 2026

Photo: iLab/CSIS
35 West

Will Trump’s Pressure on Canada Break the USMCA?

Chris Hernandez-Roy and Diego Marroquin Bitar are joined by State of Play host, Will Todman, to discuss if Canada can withstand U.S. pressure, what lies ahead, and what U.S.-Canada tensions mean for the future of free trade in North America.

Podcast Episode by Christopher Hernandez-Roy, Diego Marroquín Bitar, and Will Todman — September 10, 2026

CSIS 35 West

Manila Strategy Forum 2026

The Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in collaboration with Amador Research Services, is pleased to announce that the 2026 Manila Strategy Forum.
 

Event — September 9, 2026