Speciality

International Negotiator, Mediator, Foreign Policy Influencer, Opinion Shaper, Geopolitics Expert & Global Keynote Speaker

Personal Information

Nomi Bar-Yaacov is a leading international lawyer, negotiator, arbitrator and mediator, passionate about equality, justice and peace, with three decades of experience in international conflict management, including negotiations of complex cease-fire agreements and peace agreements.

She is a Fellow at the Global Fellowship Initiative at the Geneva Centre for Security Studies and previously an Associate Fellow at Chatham House’s International Security Program. She is the former Director of the Middle East Programme at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the ACRONYM Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, as well as the and the Advisory Boards of CBWNet and the Richard Beeston Bursary. Earlier in her career, Bar-Yaacov worked as a political adviser and speech writer to the UN Secretary-General at the United Nations Executive Office of the Secretary General, and in the Department of Political Affairs in the Organisation’s Headquarters in New York. She was also legal adviser to the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, and political adviser to the UN mission in Guatemala and a member of the UN missions to South Africa and Mozambique. She was seconded to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) during the transition period to democracy in Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. She was a war crimes investigator in the Bosnian- Serb Republic. At the turn of the millennium Bar-Yaacov worked as Agence France Presse (AFP)’s diplomatic correspondent covering the Balkans and Middle East.

Bar-Yaacov has won numerous awards for her work, most notably from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the United States Institute of Peace, the Ford Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation.

She is a frequent keynote speaker and leading commentator at the intersection of geopolitics, conflict prevention and conflict resolution, and technology for peace. She gave the keynote address at the Global Pound Conference in Florence, the Geneva International Film Festival, the PCMG2024 Annual Assembly in The Hague, and she is booked for numerous keynotes in the remainder on 2024 and early 2025. She is a frequent commentator for the BBC Radio 4 and Radio5Live, BBC World TV, BBC Newsnight, SKY News, CNBC, CBC, Deutsche Welle TV, France24 and France2, BFMTV, La’7, Mediaset TG24, RAI TV, and Al-Jazeera (Arabic and English). She speaks and works in six languages fluently.