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Photograph of Anthony Wanis-St. John

Anthony Wanis-St. John Associate Professor Peace, Human Rights & Cultural Relations

Contact
Anthony Wanis-St. John
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, magna cum laude

Languages Spoken
Spanish, French, and a bit of Arabic
Favorite Spot on Campus
Spot where JFK gave 1963 Commencement Speech and offered nuclear test ban negotiations to the USSR
Favorite Place in Washington DC
National Cathedral
Book Currently Reading
The Essential Jung: Selected Writings
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.

Anthony Wanis-St. John is a conflict resolution professional who specializes in negotiations in hostile environments, particularly ceasefires and peace processes. 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 Abuja, Nigeria. In 2015 he worked with the National Democratic Institute to help unify the Syrian Opposition Council. He has facilitated several Track II workshops for Palestinian and Israeli official negotiators.

He has successful experience mediating disputes within federal agencies and corporations, as well as mediating labor contracts in 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.

As a Senior Advisor to the United States Institute of Peace he helped unify the factions of the Darfur armed groups in Chad, conducted several electoral violence prevention missions in Haiti, delivered pre-deployment negotiation trainings for the US Military Observer Group (USMOG-W), trained Ugandan military deploying to Mogadishu as part of AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) and supported efforts to help both the Arab League and ASEAN develop preventive diplomacy capabilities.

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

Summer 2024

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

Fall 2024

  • SIS-611 International Negotiation

  • SIS-611 International Negotiation

Spring 2025

  • SIS-611 International Negotiation

  • SISG-771 Topics in Int'l Neg/Conflt Res: International Negotiation

Partnerships & Affiliations

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Professional Presentations

“Peace Processes, Ceasefires and Persuasion for Special Operations Forces,” presenter at Special Operations Forces Support to Strategic Competition 2024 Research Forum, Joint Special Operations University, SOCOM, August 8, 2024

“Four Negotiation Skills for National Security Crisis Negotiations” guest lecturer, George Washington University, Elliot School of International Affairs, National Security Studies Program, Senior Manager Course in National Security Leadership, Washington, DC, June 12, 2024

“Tactics of Negotiation for Combat Advisor Leadership,” Pre Command Course, Security Force Assistance Command, USFORSCOM Headquarters, Ft. Liberty, April 22-24, 2024

“Challenging the Flawed Foundations of Post-Liberal Peacebuilding,” Paper co-written and presented with Alex Cromwell at the 65th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, San Francisco, April 6, 2024

“Negotiation and Persuasion in Leadership and Command,” Lecture presented at Marine Corps University, Command and Staff College, Leadership and Negotiation Course, Quantico, VA, March 19, 2024

“Tactical Mastery in National Security Negotiations” guest lecturer, George Washington University, Elliot School of International Affairs, National Security Studies Program, Senior Manager Course in National Security Leadership, Washington, DC, March 13, 2024

“Strengthening Peacemaking in Times of War,” Keynote Address at “History of Conflicts or Conflict of Histories” Symposium, Florida State College at Jacksonville, March 8, 2024

Palestinian-Israel Negotiations: From Humanitarian Contact to Comprehensive Talks,” Panelist at NATO’s Civil-Military Cooperation Center of Excellence (CIMIC CCOE) seminar on “Israel-Palestine: A Humanitarian Case Study,” March 6, 2024

“Tactics of Negotiation for Combat Advisor Leadership,” Pre-Command Course, Security Force Assistance Command, USFORSCOM Headquarters, Ft. Liberty, January 22-24, 2024

"Strategic Advising Curriculum" Training of Trainers at the Military Advisor Training Academy (MATA), Ft. Moore, GA, July 17-20, 2023

“National Security Negotiations: Hostages, Ukraine and Russia,” guest lecturer, George Washington University, Elliot School of International Affairs, National Security Studies Program, Senior Manager Course in National Security Leadership, Washington, DC, March 15, 2023

“Negotiation and Persuasion in Leadership and Command,” Lecture presented at Marine Corps University, Command and Staff College, Leadership and Negotiation Course, Quantico, VA, February 28, 2023

“Negotiating Ethical Dilemmas in Public Policy,” Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy, Center for Strategic and International Studies, October 21, 2022

“Professional Negotiation Strategies and Tactics,” Breakthrough Leadership Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies, October 13, 2022

“National Security Negotiations: Great Power Politics and Interagency Negotiations,” guest lecturer, George Washington University, Elliot School of International Affairs, National Security Studies Program, Senior Manager Course in National Security Leadership, Washington, DC, March 16, 2022

“Negotiation and Persuasion in Leadership and Command,” Lecture presented at Marine Corps University, Command and Staff College, Leadership and Negotiation Course, Quantico, VA, March 3, 2022

“Foreign Policy, Strategic Questioning and Negotiation Skills for Defense Advisors,” Pre Command Course, Security Force Assistance Command, USFORSCOM Headquarters, Ft. Bragg, January 26-28, 2022

“From Saigon to Kabul: Negotiation Lessons Learned and Forgotten,” Harvard Law School, Program on Negotiation, PON Live! Lecture Series, January 12, 2022, https://youtu.be/HbV03mqE2g

“Prenegotiations in Peace Processes,” guest lecture in Prof. Jim Pugel’s Conflict Analysis course within Master of Science in Strategic Intelligence program, National Intelligence University, April 28, 2021

“Back Channels in Palestine Before 1948: Colonialists, Zionists and Arab Nationalists" for Panel "Out of the Shadows: Israel and Back-channel Diplomacy,” paper presented at the 62nd Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, April 6, 2021

“Adapting International Negotiation Teaching for Online Delivery,” 10th Annual Graduate Education Symposium in Peace and Conflict Resolution, Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University, December 4, 2020

“Cultural and Psychological Dimensions of Negotiation,” Skokolvo Moscow School of Business, October 6, 2020 https://youtu.be/-xkk0rEv8G8

“Peace Negotiation Skills for Women Delegates to Intra-Afghan Peace Talks,” United States Institute of Peace, September 9, 2020

 

Work In Progress

  • "Peace Processes: Assessing the Empirical Evidence" (with Alexander Cromwell)
  • "Shooting for Peace: Negotiation of Ceasefires"
  • "Heading for the Exit: From Saigon to Kabul"
  • "International Law and Civil Wars"
  • "Kashmiri Self-Determination in International Law"
  • "Unofficial Emissaries in Hostage Diplomacy"
  • "Arab-Israeli Channels of Secret Diplomacy during the British Mandate"
  • "Secret Diplomacy of the 1967 War, the 1973 War and the Israeli Invasion of Lebanon"

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

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

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
  •  

Professional Presentations

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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