Professor Sultan Barakat

Sultan Barakat is a Professor in Public Policy at Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University and an Honorary Professor at the University of York. He is also the Founding Director of the newly established Global Institute for Strategic Research (GISR). In 2016, Professor Barakat founded the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and directed it until 2022. Previously, he served as the Director of Research at the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center 2014-2016. At the University of York, he founded and led the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit between 1993 and 2019.

Professor Barakat has pioneered the study of post-war reconstruction and state-building. He is the author/editor of many books and articles including Understanding Influence: The Use of Statebuilding Research in British Policy (2014); After the Conflict: Reconstruction and Development in the Aftermath of War (2nd edition, 2010); Reconstructing Post-Saddam Iraq (2008); and Reconstructing War-Torn Societies: Afghanistan (2004). His forthcoming book will examine Russia’s Approach to Post-war Reconstruction (2023).

With over 30 years of professional experience, advising on issues of conflict resolution, humanitarian response, statebuilding and post-conflict recovery and transition, his work has directly influenced UN, European and national governments’ policy. He has led major evaluations, peace negotiation processes and programming initiatives in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Nepal, Palestine, Philippines (Mindanao), Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan (Darfur), Syria, Uganda (Moyo and Adjumani) and Yemen.

He is a Fellow of the Economists for Peace and Security and serves on the Advisory Board of the ODI-HPG. He is a Senior Advisor to the Geneva-based, Principles for Peace initiative. Professor Barakat was a founding ‘Expert Panel Member’ of the Global Peace Index, where he served between 2008 and 2014 and a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Health in Conflict.