Robert Malley

Robert Malley has been Director of the International Crisis Group’s Middle East Program since January 2002. He also serves as Senior Policy Advisor at the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Development. Prior to that, he was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Until January 2001, Mr. Malley was Special Assistant to President Clinton for Arab-Israeli Affairs and Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council. In this capacity, he served as a principal advisor to the President and the National Security Advisor at the White House on the Middle East peace process.

Mr. Malley joined the National Security Council staff in August 1994 as Director for Democracy. He helped coordinate U.S. refugee policy and efforts to promote democracy and human rights abroad. He also played a leading role in U.S. policy toward Cuba. In July 1997, he became Executive Assistant to the National Security Advisor from July 1997 to September 1998, acting as an informal chief of staff for Samuel R. Berger. Mr. Malley served as a law clerk to Justice Byron R. White of the United States Supreme Court in 1991-1992.

Mr. Malley is a graduate of Yale University, Harvard Law School and Oxford University, England, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He is the author of “The Call from Algeria: Third Worldism, Revolution and the Turn to Islam” and, with Hussein Agha, of “Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors.” Mr. Malley is married to Caroline Brown and has three children, Miles, Blaise and Frances.