Professor David L. Phillips

David L. Phillips is an Adjunct Professor for Conflict Resolution and Mediation at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He also has an attachment at Oxford University, as an Academic Visitor focused on Turkey’s political transition.

Until June 2023, he worked as Director of the Program on Peacebuilding and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Professor Phillips has served as Foreign Affairs Expert and as a Senior Adviser to the U.S. Department of State and as Senior Adviser to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. He has worked at academic institutions as Executive Director of Columbia University’s International Conflict Resolution Program, Director of American University’s Program on Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding, Fellow at Harvard University’s Future of Diplomacy, Project Fellow, Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Middle East Studies, and Professor of Preventive Diplomacy at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna.

He was Deputy Director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations, Senior Fellow the Preventive Diplomacy Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, and Project Director at the International Peace Research Institute of Oslo. Professor Phillips has also been a foundation executive, serving as President of the Congressional Human Rights Foundation and Executive Director of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. He was an analyst and commentator for NBC News, CNBC, and the British Broadcasting Company.

Professor Phillips has authored ten books, as well as numerous policy reports and articles in leading publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, and Foreign Affairs.