Edmund Fitton-Brown

Edmund Fitton-Brown is a former British diplomat. He graduated in History from Cambridge University and joined the Foreign Service in 1984. His career included postings in Finland, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates; and culminated as UK Ambassador for Yemen from 2015 to 2017. He speaks Arabic, Finnish and Italian; and is best known as a specialist in the Middle East and counterterrorism.

He joined the United Nations in 2017 as an Expert with the ISIL/Al-Qaida/Taliban Sanctions Monitoring Team, before taking over as Coordinator of the Team in January 2018. He was based in New York but undertook official missions all over Africa, Asia, and Europe. He functioned as the UN’s principal authority on the global threat posed by ISIL and Al-Qaida, making frequent appearances at high-level conferences and in the media.

He completed his UN contract in July 2022 and moved to Austin, Texas. He holds advisory or fellowship positions with the Counter Extremism Project, the Middle East Institute, The Soufan Center and New America.