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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State of Play

Emergency Episode: PM Takaichi's Landslide Victory in Japan

Nick Szechenyi joins Will to analyze the geopolitical consequences of Sanae Takaichi's resounding victory in the February 8 Japanese general elections.

Podcast Episode by Will Todman and Nicholas Szechenyi — February 10, 2026

Photo: iLab/CSIS
State of Play

Can middle powers build a new world order as PM Carney says?

Chris Hernandez-Roy and Kristi Govella join Will to discuss whether or not key U.S. allies like Canada and Japan could do this, what it might look like, and what the risks are.

Podcast Episode by Will Todman, Christopher Hernandez-Roy, and Kristi Govella — January 29, 2026

Photo: iLab/CSIS
State of Play

How should we combat China's economic coercion?

Will and guests discuss how China's economic strategy is evolving, how it compares with President Trump's own form of economic coercion, and what states and firms can do to push back.

Podcast Episode by Will Todman and Victor Cha — January 23, 2026

Photo: iLab/CSIS

How Syria Can Succeed in Integrating the Kurds

Intensified conflict between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces could threaten Syria’s transition. Here’s what the government can do to ensure it doesn’t.

Commentary by Mona Yacoubian and Will Todman — January 22, 2026

State of Play

What are CSIS experts' boldest geopolitical predictions in 2026?

12 CSIS experts join Will to share significant developments in different parts of the world in 2025, and predictions for 2026.

Podcast Episode by Will Todman, Ryan C. Berg, Max Bergmann, Victor Cha, Thomas J. Christensen, Charles Edel, Kristi Govella, Henrietta Levin, Bonny Lin, Oge Onubogu, Gregory B. Poling, Richard M. Rossow, and Mona Yacoubian — January 15, 2026

Photo: iLab/CSIS

Indo-Pacific Forecast 2026

Please join the CSIS Geopolitics and Foreign Policy (GFP) Department's annual preview of political, economic, and security developments across the region.

Event — January 14, 2026

State of Play

Did Trump remake the global order in 2025?

Victor Cha and the Brookings Institution's Dr. Tom Wright join Will to discuss how the United States' global strategy changed in 2025.

Podcast Episode by Will Todman and Victor Cha — December 17, 2025

Photo: iLab/CSIS