Hesham Youssef is a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (2019- present). He was a career diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt. From 2014-2019, he served as Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian, Cultural and Social Affairs of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and completed his term in July 2019. From 2001-2014, he served as a senior official in the Arab League, as Official Spokesman and later the Chief of Staff to Secretary General Amr Moussa from 2003- 2011. From 2012-2014, Mr. Youssef was a Senior Advisor to the Secretary General of the Arab League, Dr. Nabil Elaraby, on issues pertaining to crisis management as well as the reform of the Arab League.

 Mr. Youssef worked extensively on conflict resolution in the Middle East and in particular the Arab Israeli conflict, reconciliation in Iraq as and other regional conflicts and issues. He wrote several papers on conflicts and developments in the Middle East.