Barnett R. Rubin

Barnett R. Rubin, PhD. is Director of Studies and Senior Fellow at the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) at New York University.

"In November-December 2001 Dr. Rubin served as special advisor to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, during the negotiations that produced the Bonn Agreement. During 1994-2000 he was Director of the Center for Preventive Action, and Director, Peace and Conflict Studies, at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He is considered one of the world's foremost experts on Afghanistan and the surrounding region, as well as on conflict prevention and peace building. Dr. Rubin was Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for the Study of Central Asia at Columbia University from 1990 to 1996.

"Previously, he was a Jennings Randolph Peace Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He received a Ph.D. (1982) and M.A. (1976) from the University of Chicago and a B.A. (1972) from Yale University. He also received a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris in 1977-1978. He is currently deputy chair of the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum, a member the Steering Committee of Human Rights Watch/ Europe and Central Asia, the Executive Board of Human Rights Watch/Asia, the Board of the Open Society Institute's Central Eurasia Project, the Conseil Scientifique of the Fondation Médecins Sans Frontières, and the Board of the International League for Human Rights. During 1996-98 he served on the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad.

"Dr. Rubin is the author of Blood on the Doorstep: the Politics of Preventing Violent Conflict (2002). He is also the author, co-author, or editor of The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System (2002; first edition 1995), Calming the Ferghana Valley: Development and Dialogue in the Heart of Central Asia (1999), Stabilizing Nigeria: Sanctions, Incentives, and Support for Civil Society (1998); Post-Soviet Political Order: Conflict and State Building (1998); Cases and Strategies for Preventive Action (1998); Toward Comprehensive Peace in Southeast Europe: Conflict Prevention in the South Balkans (1996), and The Search for Peace in Afghanistan: From Buffer State to Failed State (1995). Dr. Rubin has written numerous articles and book reviews on conflict prevention, state formation, and human rights. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Orbis, Survival, International Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, and elsewhere." 

He is a member of the Human Rights Watch Asia Advisory Committee.


 * Advisory Board, Center for Preventive Action
 * Advisory Board, EurasiaNet