J. Alexander Thier

J Alexander Thier "joined USIP as a senior advisor in the Rule of Law program, one of the Centers of Innovation, in 2005. Previously, he was the director of the Project on Failed States at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. From 2003 to 2004, Thier was legal advisor to Afghanistan's Constitutional and Judicial Reform Commissions in Kabul, where he assisted in the development of a new constitution and judicial system.

"In 2002, he worked in Kabul as a Constitutional and Legal expert to the British Department for International Development, and as senior analyst for the International Crisis Group. Thier worked as a UN and NGO official in Afghanistan during the civil war from 1993 to 1996, where he was the officer-in-charge of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan in Kabul. He also served as coordination officer for the UN Iraq Program in New York. An attorney, Thier was a Skadden fellow and a graduate fellow at the U.S. National Security Council's Directorate for Near-East and South Asia. He received the Richard S. Goldsmith award for outstanding work on dispute resolution from Stanford University in 2000.

"Thier has appeared as an expert commentator on NPR, CBS, and the BBC, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, among others. He has a B.A. from Brown University, a master’s in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School."