Charles Dunne

Charles W. Dunne is an adjunct professor at the Elliott School of International Relations at George Washington University. He is affiliated with the Arab Center Washington D.C. as a non-resident fellow and is a scholar with the Middle East Institute. From 2011-2015, he was Freedom House’s Director of Middle East and North Africa programs, where he focused on human rights and democracy promotion in the region. Before joining Freedom House, he spent 24 years as a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, with overseas tours in Cairo, Jerusalem, and Madras (Chennai), India. He was Foreign Policy Adviser to the Director for Strategic Plans and Policy at the Joint Staff in the Pentagon (2007-2008), and Director for Iraq at the National Security Council from 2005-2007. He served as a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, where he contributed to the development of presidential initiatives to advance political reform and democracy in the Broader Middle East and North Africa. He is a member of the Democracy and Human Rights Working Group of the McCain Institute for International Leadership.