Mona Yacoubian

Director and Senior Adviser, Middle East Program
Mona Yacoubian

Mona Yacoubian is director and senior adviser 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.

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Executive Education

Global Foresight: Preparing for Future Trends

Global Foresight: Preparing for Future Trends is Washington’s premier executive course for mid-to senior-level professionals responsible for helping their organizations identify and prepare for the global macrotrends that will drive change for the next 30 years.

Course Date: April 27, 2026
Registration Closes: April 17, 2026

Why “Mowing the Grass” Won’t Work in Iran

If the United States decides to pursue the strategy of "mowing the grass" in Iran, it could lay the foundation for prolonged regional instability and global disruption.

Commentary by Mona Yacoubian — April 17, 2026

Visualizing Iran’s Escalation Strategy

Iran is abandoning calibrated retaliation for rapid escalation—expanding the war across the region and raising stakes globally. The Middle East Program breaks down Tehran’s strategy with two new charts mapping horizontal and vertical escalation.

Commentary by Mona Yacoubian — March 27, 2026

State of Play

What Are the Hidden Costs of the War with Iran?

Emily Harding, Caitlin Welsh, and Mona Yacoubian joined Will to discuss the short- and long-term implications of the war with Iran.

Podcast Episode by Will Todman, Emily Harding, Mona Yacoubian, and Caitlin Welsh — March 25, 2026

Photo: iLab/CSIS