April Longley Alley

April Longley Alley is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where her research focuses on Yemen and the Gulf. A leading regional expert with over 15 years of experience in conflict analysis and mediation, she most recently served as the senior expert for the Gulf states and Yemen at the United States Institute of Peace. Previously, she spent four years at the United Nations as a senior political advisor to the U.N. special envoy of the secretary general for Yemen. 

Alley spent a decade at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based conflict prevention organization, ending her tenure there as deputy program director for the Middle East and North Africa. She also worked at National Defense University’s Center for Applied Strategic Learning. 

Alley holds a PhD in government and an MA in Arab studies from Georgetown University. A former Fulbright and David L. Boren fellow, she has written extensively for publications including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Middle East Journal, and Journal of Democracy.