Omer Niazi
President and Chief Executive Officer
Omer Niazi is the President and CEO of the Council on International Law, Order, and Security. With over ten years of experience in both the public and private sectors, his work centers on governance, rule of law, and international security.
He has worked with the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation and US Department of State's Office of International Security and Non-proliferation on initiatives aimed at countering the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), with a specific focus on nuclear non-proliferation.
Omer is a Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, a non-resident Fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute and US Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) where his research focuses on United States foreign policy towards Eastern Europe and Eurasia. He also conducts research on security and political development of the South Caucasus region at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
He has formerly researched with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). He was also a Policy Fellow at the Fund for Constitutional Government and the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition.
Omer holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was also a Mason Public Policy Fellow. He holds a B.A. in Public Administration and also a Master’s in Management from the UNINETTUNO University. Omer’s views have been published by AEI, ISW, MEI, CIPE, the National Interest, and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Publications
PANEL
Trump's Foreign Policy and the Russia-Ukraine War
Whether the incoming administration could end the war, and how any settlement would fit its contest with China
OPINION
The Crypto Industry is ‘Tether’-ed to Illicit Finance. Here's How to Break the Chain
If Congress advances new rules on cryptocurrency, it must advance tighter anti-money laundering requirements alongside them
COMMENTARY
Prisoner Releases Will Empower Extremist Insurgencies
How prisoner releases in Afghanistan and Mali strengthened insurgent groups as Western counterterrorism capacity contracted
COMMENTARY
Tehran Increases Local Security and Strengthens Ties to Venezuela Amid Economic Crisis
Currency collapse pushed Tehran toward Caracas abroad
RESEARCH PAPER
Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Talks and the United States South Caucasus Strategy
How a moment of bleak political realities produce a diplomatic opening, and what it would take to seize it
OPINION
Azerbaijan-Armenia Peace Talks: The Status Quo and an Emerging Diplomatic Breakthrough
Three deadlocks stand between a framework agreement and a settlement: a constitution, a border, and a corridor
COMMENTARY
Iranian Leaders Seek to Capitalize on the Expiration of the Arms Embargo
Weapons sales as revenue, and a conflict on the northern border Tehran could not afford to take sides in
OPINION
Offshore Tax Evasion is a Matter of Democracy
When assets move offshore, domestic law reaches its limit — and so does the promise that it binds everyone
OPINION
Israel-Hamas Conflict: Lessons from Afghanistan
What twenty years of missed openings in Afghanistan suggest about the war in Gaza
COMMENTARY
Iran Accelerates Nuclear Program Development
Underground infrastructure and advanced centrifuges as leverage ahead of a change of administration in Washington