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Photograph of Anthony Wanis

Anthony Wanis Associate Professor Peace, Human Rights & Cultural Relations

Contact
Anthony Wanis
SIS | Peace, Human Rights & Cultural Relations
School of International Service 206
Degrees
Ph.D., International Relations, Tufts University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Certificate in Strategic Management and International Consultancy, Tufts University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

M.A.L.D., Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

B.S., Human Services, St. John’s University, <i>magna cum laude</i>

Languages Spoken
Spanish, French, and a bit of Arabic
Favorite Spot on Campus
Spot where JFK gave the 1963 Commencement Speech and announced nuclear test ban negotiations
Favorite Place in Washington DC
Lincoln Memorial
Book Currently Reading
Peter Maas, <i>The Terrible Hours: The Greatest Submarine Rescue in History</i>
Bio
Anthony Wanis-St. John is the author of Back Channel Negotiation: Secrecy in Middle East Peacemaking (Syracuse University Press, January 2011), and with Noah Rosen, the coauthor of “Negotiating Civil Resistance,” Peaceworks Vol. 129 (2017), USIP Press. With Roger Mac Ginty, he co-edited Contemporary Peacemaking, 3rd ed. (Palgrave, 2022). He directed the M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from 2013 to 2016 and supports the Department of Defense in the training of advisors through the Defense Advising Program and the Security Force Assistance Command at Ft. Liberty, NC.

His research, practice and teaching focus on negotiations in zones of conflict; including peace processes, ceasefires and civil society engagement. His practical experience includes Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. Since 2010 he has supported the Department of Defense and USIP in the preparation of military and civilian advisors deploying to Afghanistan and other partner countries. In 2016 he co-facilitated the strategic review session of USAID/OTI’s countering violent extremism portfolio in Nigeria. In 2015 he worked with the National Democratic Institute to advise Syrian civilian opposition groups exiled in Turkey on having a unified posture with regard to the Syrian government, and to build the negotiating capacity of Syrian local councils. He has facilitated several Track II workshops for Palestinian and Israeli official negotiation staff and advisors.

He has successful experience mediating disputes within federal agencies and corporations, as well as mediating labor contracts and disputes within the education sector in the US. Dr. Wanis-St. John has also consulted with the World Bank and USAID on rule of law programs in countries such as Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela and El Salvador.

He has provided negotiation trainings and lectures to the Joint Special Operations University, US Army 352nd Civil Affairs Command and the 450th Civil Affairs Battalion as well as Marine Corps University’s Command and Staff College, the Department of Labor’s International Labor Affairs Bureau, the Department of State’s Conflict and Stabilization Operations Bureau, the World Bank, CSIS and others.
He was a Senior Advisor to the United States Institute of Peace, and in that capacity has advised Darfur military commanders on their unity negotiations, conducted electoral violence prevention and dialogue training in Haiti, delivered pre-deployment negotiation trainings for US Military Observer Groups, trained Ugandan military deploying to Mogadishu as part of AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia).

He has been an instructor at the Inter-American Defense College at Ft. McNair; UMASS Boston; Tufts University’s Fletcher School; Johns Hopkins University/SAIS, the executive education programs at Harvard Law School, Bordeaux Ecole de Management, Notre Dame University in Beirut and Georgetown University’s McDonough Business School. Additionally, he’s conducted negotiation consulting around the world for corporations such as Hewlett-Packard, Amex, Visa, Eli Lilly, Parsons and Amgen. He was a Doctoral Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation.

His research appears in outlets such as Journal of Peace Research, Negotiation Journal and International Negotiation

Teaching

Spring 2024

  • SIS-611 International Negotiation

  • SIS-619 Special Studies in Int'l Pol: Comparative Peace Processes

Summer 2024

  • SIS-730 Skills Inst in Int'l Affairs: Exped Civil-Military Interactn

Fall 2024

  • SIS-611 International Negotiation

  • SIS-611 International Negotiation

Partnerships & Affiliations

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Selected Publications

Books | Edited Volume (Refereed) | Book Chapters | Journal Issues - Guest Editor | Refereed Journal Articles | Non-Refereed Journal Articles | Research Reports | Reviews and Review Essays | Research Monographs | Peer-Reviewed Policy Papers and Publications | Pedagogy


Books

Edited Volumes

Book Chapters

Journal Issues - Guest Editor

Refereed Journal Articles

Non-Refereed Journal Articles

Research Reports

  • “Managers as Negotiators: The Power and Gender Mix,” Negotiation Journal, vol. 12, no. 4 (1996): 367-370.
  • “Toward the ‘Next Generation’ of Research on Mediation and Third-Party Intervention,” Negotiation Journal, vol. 12, no. 3 (1996): 271-274.

Reviews and Review Essays

Research Monographs

Peer-Reviewed Policy Papers and Publications

  • “Negotiating Civil Resistance,” with Noah Rosen, Peaceworks vol. 129, United States Institute of Peace, July 2017
  • Setting the Table for Arab-Israeli Peace: The Role of Publics, Policy paper for the USIP Senior Working Group on the Middle East, Co-Chaired by Samuel R. Berger and Stephen A. Hadley, June 23, 2009.
  • Training Manual on Alternative Dispute Resolution and Restorative Justice [Judicial training for Nigerian judges], co-authored with Darren Kew and Kevin Nwosu, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, October 2007.
  • International Prevention Practices in the Culture of Drugs and Violence, U.S. Department of State, July 2005.
  • “A Culture of Justice: Guatemala’s Post-Conflict Judicial Modernization,” World Bank, April 2004 (presented at World Bank’s “Scaling-Up Poverty Reduction” Conference in Shanghai, May 2004).
  • “Evaluation of World Bank-supported ADR in Guatemala,” World Bank, March 2003.
  • “Commercial Alternate Dispute Resolution in Bolivia,” Appendix “B” in S. Brown, C. Cervenak, D. Fairman, Alternative Dispute Resolution Programs: A Guide for USAID, December 1997 (USAID Contract AEP-I-00-96-90022-00).

Pedagogy

  • “Comparative Peace Processes,” in Timothy A. McElwee, B. Welling Hall, Joseph Liechty, Julie Garber, eds., Peace, Justice and Security Studies: A Curriculum Guide, 7th ed. (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009) Ch. 14.6

Professional Presentations

Grants and Sponsored Research

  • Fulbright Senior Specialists Scholarship 2009;  Curricular collaboration with the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Palestinian American Research Center Post Doctoral Fellowship, 2005
  • Harvard Law School, Program on Negotiation Doctoral Research Fellowship, 1999-2000

Work In Progress

  • "Shooting for Peace: Negotiation of Ceasefires in Civil Wars." 

AU Experts

Area of Expertise

international negotiation, military negotiations, ceasefires, humanitarian negotiations, peace process, back channel negotiation

Additional Information

Anthony Wanis-St. John researches  international negotiation, military negotiations, ceasefires, humanitarian negotiations and peace processes. He has created several advanced courses on negotiation for SIS, ranging from interpersonal skills and analysis to complex international multilateral contexts. He also conducts advanced negotiation trainings, mediation and conflict resolution workshops in diverse organizational contexts and sectors. He is an advisor to the Academy of International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding at the United States Institute of Peace.

For the Media

To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

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