Dareen Khalifa is the senior adviser for dialogue promotion at Crisis Group. Previously, she was a senior analyst at Crisis Group focused on security, conflict, politics, and governance in Syria. Khalifa has 13 years of experience working on the Middle East, with a particular focus on substate armed group dynamics, local governance, and civil society. She has worked on the Syria conflict in a number of roles since 2013, most recently with the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, regularly traveling to Iraq and Syria to engage with various civilian and armed actors on initiatives to mitigate conflict. In addition to publishing numerous research outputs and policy reports for King’s College London, she has written for The Washington Post, among other outlets. Khalifa speaks Arabic and English and has an MA in human rights and public policy from University College London.