Anthony Wanis-St John

Anthony Wanis-St. John is an Associate Professor at American University’s School of International Service. He’s the author of Back Channel Negotiation: Secrecy in Middle East Peacemaking (Syracuse University Press 2011) and co-edited the 3rd edition of Contemporary Peacemaking (Palgrave Macmillan 2022).

He has supported the Department of Defense’s Defense Security Cooperation University to train civilian and combat advisors, including for the U.S. Army’s Security Force Assistance Command. In the field he advised Darfur military commanders on the need for operational and strategic unity and later supported attempts to unify the Syrian Opposition Council. In 2016 he co-facilitated the strategic review of USAID/OTI’s countering violent extremism portfolio in Abuja, Nigeria. With the United States Institute of Peace he trained Ugandan military deploying to Mogadishu as part of AMISOM. With USIP in Myanmar he supported efforts to build the preventive diplomacy capabilities of ASEAN and did the same for the Arab League in Cairo. He supported the stand up of the Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations. Dr. Wanis-St. John has also consulted with the World Bank and USAID on rule of law programs in Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela and El Salvador. He has provided negotiation instruction for the U.S. Joint Special Operations University, the U.S. Army’s 450th Civil Affairs Battalion, the Department of Labor’s International Labor Affairs Bureau among others.