Frederic Wehrey is a senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where his research focuses on governance, conflict, and security in Libya, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf.
His articles, essays, and reporting have appeared in the New York Review of Books, the Atlantic, The New Yorker, TIME, Politico, the London Review of Books, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Small Wars and Insurgencies, the Journal of North African Studies, Mediterranean Politics, the Chicago Journal of International Law, and the Journal of Democracy. He has been interviewed by major media outlets such as NPR, ABC News, CNN, PBS NewsHour, and the BBC. He has served as a consultant to the United Nations and has testified before the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.
He is the author of The Burning Shores: Inside the Battle for the New Libya (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2018), which the New York Times called “the essential text on the country’s disintegration.” His previous book, Sectarian Politics in the Gulf: From the Iraq War to the Arab Uprisings (Columbia University Press, 2013), was named a “Best Book on the Middle East” by Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy magazines in 2014 and 2013, respectively. He is currently writing a book on African resistance to European imperialism during the interwar period, under contract with W.W. Norton
Before joining Carnegie, Wehrey was a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. He served for two decades as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, with tours across the Middle East and North and East Africa.
He holds a doctorate in International Relations from Oxford University and a Master’s in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University.
Russia’s outreach to the region has successfully exploited regimes’ frustrations with the West. Yet it has encountered difficulties in navigating the complex interrelations and rivalries.
A Deal Won’t Forge a Two-State Solution or Push China Out of the Middle East.
A string of coups across Africa since 2020 has allowed Moscow to strengthen its position on the continent, even as it funnels vast military and economic resources into the war in Ukraine.
Libya’s climate-vulnerable regions of Jabal Nafusa, Fezzan, and Jabal Akhdar underscore the important role played by civil society and municipalities in protecting marginalized communities.
Experts analyze critical issues on what happens after the fighting abates, from global points of view.
The risks created by the sustained U.S. military presence in the Middle East can only be addressed by reducing that presence. This can be done responsibly.
The War in Gaza, American Overstretch, and the Case for Retrenchment.
Israel is now operating in the Gaza Strip, but a U.S. official says IDF ground invasion plans changed to use more “methodical” tactics compared to original plans.
It could intrude on COP28 in Dubai and affect the climate agenda in several key areas.
Please join the Carnegie Middle East Program for a discussion on the broad climate change challenges that the Middle East and North Africa region is facing.
