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about
Sarah Yerkes is a senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research focuses on democracy and governance, U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East and North Africa, and political and economic reform in Tunisia.
She is the editor of Geopolitics and Governance in North Africa (Edinburgh University Press, 2023) and the author of a forthcoming book examining the role of external actors in influencing the first decade of democratic transition around the globe.
Yerkes has been a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow and has taught in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University and at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University.
She is a former member of the State Department’s policy planning staff, where she focused on North Africa. Previously, she was a foreign affairs officer in the State’s Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian affairs. Yerkes also served as a geopolitical research analyst for the U.S. military’s Joint Staff Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate (J5) at the Pentagon, advising the Joint Staff leadership on foreign policy and national security issues.
affiliations
education
Ph.D. Georgetown University, M.A. Harvard University, B.A. Emory Universitylanguages
Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, SpanishAll work from Sarah Yerkes
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An effective approach in Tunisia would emphasize economic stability and a healthy civic space along with fending off Russian and Chinese influence—all of which could serve American interests and lay the ground for a revitalization of Tunisia’s democratic project.
Because Tunisia’s regions face different climate threats and socioeconomic needs, municipalities should be more empowered to implement climate mitigation measures and protect vulnerable communities.
The Middle East and North Africa, the most water scarce region in the world, is facing simultaneous climate, governance, and social challenges that the region's leaders and citizens can no longer ignore.
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- Reem Halaseh,
- Shada El-Sharif,
- Dina Zayed,
- Sarah Yerkes,
- Joy Arkeh
Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Leaders is a special half-day conference hosted by the 2023-2024 James C. Gaither Junior Fellows. Over the course of three sessions, panelists will discuss issues impacting youth including the evolving global order and role of institutions, climate change, AI, radicalization, and shifts in the information landscape.
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- Dan Baer,
- Abby Finkenauer ,
- Daniel Helmeci,
- Stewart Patrick,
- Kylie Jones,
- Francesca Nyakora,
- Sarah Yerkes,
- Fiona Brauer,
- Vishnu Kannan,
- Samantha Lai,
- Aneliese Bernard ,
- Doug Klain,
- Quinta Jurecic,
- Milo McBride
The country’s transition fifty years ago offers important lessons for aspiring democracies.
Experts analyze critical issues on what happens after the fighting abates, from global points of view.
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- Ilana Feldman,
- Frederic Wehrey,
- Andrew Bonney,
- Aaron David Miller,
- Sarah Yerkes,
- Larry Garber,
- Muriel Asseburg
In order to explore the complexities of our rapidly changing world, the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center will examine pressing global issues through four engaging panel discussions in a one-day event, under the collective title, “The World in Focus: Uncertainty and the Global Outlook for 2024.”
North Africa is a region with tremendous geostrategic importance. Situated at the nexus of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, the region has drawn the attention of external powers for centuries.
But unless real progress follows the public rhetoric, the conference’s main achievement risks being youth-, green- and pink-washing.
Scholars from Carnegie’s global network comment on how the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is affecting their areas of interest, and what the implications of this may be.
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