Berkley Center

Marina Ottaway works on issues of political transformation in the Middle East and Gulf security. A long-time analyst of the formation and transformation of political systems, she has also written on political reconstruction in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, and African countries. Before joining the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Ottaway carried out research in Africa and in the Middle East for many years and taught at the University of Addis Ababa, the University of Zambia, the American University in Cairo, and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Ottaway is an expert in civil society, democracy, political reform, non-governmental actors, foreign and humanitarian aid, human rights, Islamist movements, the Middle East, Iraq, and Africa. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University and undergraduate degree from the University of Pavia, Italy.