Sarah Yerkes is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a globally recognised expert on North Africa. She has published numerous book chapters, reports, articles and op-eds on the Middle East and North Africa with a focus on state-society relations and governance. She has published articles in IEMed Mediterranean Yearbook 2020, Arab Center of Washington, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Democracy and Society, and Current History, as well as op-eds in The National, Diwan, World Politics Review, and The New Arab. Formerly, Sarah was a member of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, where she covered North Africa and spent time at the Pentagon, advising the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She holds an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University.