Professor Yossi Mekelberg joins St. James’s Foreign Policy Group as Strategic Adviser

An award-winning scholar of International Relations and an experienced research analyst, Professor Mekelberg brings decades of expertise in geopolitics, conflict resolution, diplomacy, and international negotiations, with a particular focus on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy.

Professor Mekelberg began his academic career at King’s College London and has since taught at SOAS, Webster University, and Regent’s University, where he served as Head of the Department of International Relations and Politics for more than a decade. He currently teaches at the University of Roehampton, specialising in crisis management and the interface between theory and practice in international relations.

He has been affiliated with Chatham House since 2002 and currently serves as a Senior Consulting Fellow in the MENA Programme. Previously, he was a senior adviser to Pax Ludens, a Dutch organisation specialising in international conflict and crisis-management training through advanced simulation exercises. Since 2020, he has also been a member of the Advisory Board of Trends Research & Advisory in the United Arab Emirates.

Alongside his academic and advisory work, Professor Mekelberg has consulted extensively for governments, international organisations, and civil society actors on Middle East geopolitics and conflict dynamics. He has been invited to speak at leading institutions in the UK — including Oxford, Cambridge, the LSE, Edinburgh, and Exeter — as well as internationally, including at NATO’s Defence College in Rome, and in the United States, Switzerland, Israel, and Mexico.

For more than two decades, Professor Mekelberg has been a prominent media commentator on international affairs, appearing regularly on BBC, CNN, NBC, ABC, Al Jazeera, Sky News, France 24, Monocle, and DW. He previously wrote a weekly English-language column for Al Arabiya (2013–2017) and has contributed twice weekly to Arab Newssince 2017, alongside opinion pieces for the Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, iPaper, and The World Today.

At SJFPG, Professor Mekelberg will advise clients on geopolitical risk assessment, conflict resolution strategies, crisis management, and diplomatic engagement, with particular emphasis on the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy, and complex multilateral negotiation environments. His work supports organisations seeking to navigate volatile political landscapes, manage escalation risks, and translate strategic analysis into effective policy and engagement outcomes.

St. James’s Foreign Policy Group is proud to welcome Professor Yossi Mekelberg and looks forward to the contribution of his expertise across its advisory work on geopolitics, diplomacy, and international security.