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.

Programs & Projects

Areas of Expertise

Media Queries

In the News 8 of 134 results

Show More

All Will Todman Content

Filter by

1 - 10 of 246 results
State of Play

Have Politics Jeopardized the Ebola Response? 

Steve Morrison and Michaela Simoneau of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center join Will to discuss the degree to which politics have hampered the response to Ebola. 

Podcast Episode by Will Todman, J. Stephen Morrison, and Michaela Simoneau — July 2, 2026

Photo: iLab/CSIS
State of Play

Was the G7 Summit in France a Success?

Victor Cha, Kristi Govella, Phil Luck, and Caitlin Welsh join Will to assess how meaningful the outcomes of the G7 Summit were.

Podcast Episode by CSIS Scholars — June 17, 2026

Photo: iLab/CSIS

Everyone Lost the War With Iran

Will Todman in Foreign Policy unpacks how months of fighting revealed that multiple countries can impose costs, but none can impose order.

Commentary by Will Todman — June 16, 2026

State of Play

Trump's Iran Deal: What Comes Next?

U.S. and Iran announce a framework deal with a 60‑day ceasefire and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. CSIS experts analyze its winners, challenges ahead, and its impact on the Middle East.

Podcast Episode by CSIS Scholars — June 15, 2026

Photo: iLab/CSIS
Audio Briefs

The United States and Iran Announce a Deal to End the War | State of Play

An audio version of "⁠The United States and Iran Announce a Deal to End the War | State of Play⁠," a new Commentary by CSIS’s Will Todman and Mona Yacoubian. This audio was generated with text-to-speech by Eleven Labs. 

Podcast Episode by Will Todman and Mona Yacoubian — June 15, 2026

Audio Briefs