Will Todman

Washington, D.C., United States

Chief of Staff, Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department, and Senior Fellow, Middle East Program at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

Chief of Staff @CSISGeopolitics and senior fellow @CSISMidEast. Mainly conflict, governance, and displacement in the MENA region. All views my own.

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Articles

Lebanon Finally Elects a President

Jan 10, 2025 | csis.org | Will Todman

Lebanon’s parliament elected General Joseph Aoun as president on January 9, 2025, ending a two-year stalemate. Parliament had failed to elect a president 12 times following the end of the previous president’s term in October 2022. Aoun has served as the commander of the Lebanese army since March 2017. Q1: Why did this happen now? A1: Aoun’s election is a manifestation of Hezbollah’s weakness.
Don’t Rush Syrian Refugees’ Return

Dec 11, 2024 | csis.org | Will Todman

Just one day after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, Austria announced plans to deport Syrians back to Syria. A dozen European countries also announced that they had stopped processing Syrians’ asylum claims. This is a huge mistake. Many European states have wanted to send Syrians back to their home country for a long time. Before Assad’s fall, several states had hardened their stance on refugee returns, pushing for Syrians to return even without political reforms.
The UK’s engagement with the Middle East and North Africa

Mar 27, 2024 | csis.org | Will Todman

The State of Governance and Rule of Law in Uganda
The Global Economic Consequences of the Attacks on Red Sea Shipping Lanes

Jan 22, 2024 | csis.org | Thibault Denamiel |Matthew Schleich |William Reinsch |Will Todman

IntroductionMaritime shipping, the backbone of international commerce, is under stress resulting from several crises in different chokepoints across the globe. Chief among them is instability caused by the Houthi attacks on ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, an obligatory route for vessels transiting the Suez Canal.
Middle East Transformation Initiative

Sep 21, 2023 | csis.org | Will Todman

The Middle East is on the cusp of a transformation. The region’s economies, environment, politics, and international relations are all shifting simultaneously. While the looming energy transition is the most obvious driver, a climate transition is also underway. These two combine with other factors to create an impending labor transition, and the three will mix with demographics and global communications technologies to create profound social transitions.
Environmental Civil Society in the Middle East

Jun 9, 2023 | csis.org | Will Todman

In 2015, rotting garbage sparked an unprecedented political movement in Lebanon. When the Naamah landfill closed and refuse piled up on the streets of Beirut, Lebanese citizens took to the streets to demand change. Protestors united across sectarian and political divides, ascribing the government’s mismanagement of waste collection with the endemic corruption of the political class.
Support for Refugees Erodes in the Middle East

Jun 5, 2023 | csis.org | Will Todman

International actors should also develop more innovative strategies. Absent political will to resettle large numbers of refugees from the Middle East to Western states, donors can still help facilitate resettlement to other countries. Some African states welcomed Afghan refugees in the final days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, motivated by a sense of moral responsibility, echoes of historical national traumas, and geopolitical opportunism.