Nickolay Mladenov is the Segal Distinguished Visiting Fellow at The Washington Institute. An accomplished Bulgarian politician and diplomat, he is the director-general of the UAE's Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy. He previously served as UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process (2015-2020). At the Institute, he will join a team of experts within the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations.
Mladenov's career has included serving as Bulgaria's minister of foreign affairs and minister of defense as well as a member of the European Parliament. In 2013, he was appointed representative for Iraq and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He assumed the peace process coordinator post two years later, where he played a critical role in helping to defuse cross-border violence between Israel and Hamas and preserve the idea of a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
