Chris Boucek

Inspired by a trip he took with fellow Sandburg High School students to Egypt, Chris Boucek decided to major in the Middle Eastern affairs at Drew University. During his internship at the U.S. Department of State, Boucek was exposed to the Arab/Israeli peace negotiation process, which had a prfound influence on his entire career. Once graduated from Drew, he enrolled in an Arabic language course at the University of Aleppo in Syria which led to an internship with AT&T in Cairo, Egypt. He returned to the states and accepted a position as a media analyst with the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington D.C. He and his wife moved to Cairo where he took a position as Editor of The Middle East Times, as English language newspaper published in Egypt. After two years he returned to his position in DC. He went on to get a PhD in London, as well as a post-deoctoral research position at Princeton University. Two years later, he returned to Washington D.C. as an Associate in the Middle East program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research focused on security challenges in the Arabian Peninsula and Northern Africa. He became a leading authority on disengagement and rehabilitation programs for Islamist militants and extremists and a recognized expert on terrorism, security and stability issues in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Boucek also regularly contributed to the New York Times, Washington Post, CBS 60 Minutes and more.