Sheikh Nawaf Bin Mubarak Al-Thani

Sheikh Nawaf Bin Mubarak Al-Thani is the President and Founder of the Council on International Mediation (CIM), a non-governmental, non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C. and Doha dedicated to advancing mediation, peacebuilding, and de-escalatory diplomacy across regions of conflict.

 

A Brigadier General and career defense diplomat, Al-Thani has served at the intersection of security, diplomacy, and humanitarian engagement for over two decades. As Qatar’s former Senior Defense Official and Defense Attaché to the United States, Canada, and Mexico, he played a key role in strengthening defense cooperation and advancing dialogue on regional stability and crisis management. Earlier, as Director of Defense Intelligence Operations and later as Director of Strategic Communications at Qatar’s Ministry of Defense, he contributed to the development of Qatar’s modern defense and communication architecture—supporting national and multilateral efforts in conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction.

 

Al-Thani’s field experience spans multiple international operations and peacebuilding contexts, including deployments under Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Odyssey Dawn, and Operation Unified Protector. He also participated in humanitarian and observer missions, notably with the Arab League’s humanitarian observer mission to Syria in 2012, gaining first-hand insight into the complexities of conflict mediation and security sector reform (SSR) in fragile environments.

 

His professional focus centers on mediation, post-conflict stabilization, and defense diplomacy—particularly in the areas of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR), as well as the integration of humanitarian imperatives into strategic defense policy.

 

Al-Thani serves on the Advisory Committee of Georgetown University’s Small States Research Program (Qatar), as a Distinguished International Defense Affairs Fellow at the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations (Washington, D.C.), and as a Board Member of the Gulf International Forum (Washington, D.C.).

 

He holds an LL.B from Qatar University and an M.Res in Defense Studies from King’s College London, and is a graduate of both the Ahmed Bin Mohammed Military Academy and the Joaan Bin Jassim Academy for Defense Studies, where he earned distinction and honors respectively.