Areas of Expertise

Israel/Palestine
Turkey and the Kurdish question
Sudan
Syria
Youth in the Arab world, Israel, and Turkey
Democratization

Short Bio

Kristian Brakel is an associate fellow in DGAP’s Center for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. He heads the Istanbul office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Previously, Brakel has held posts as a senior political analyst on the Middle East and North Africa with both the international non-governmental organization Crisis Action in Germany and the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the United Arab Emirates. He has headed the office of the European Union’s special representative in Sudan and served as political adviser to the EU special representative for the Middle East Peace Process.

Brakel graduated with a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Hamburg and has spent substantial time in Egypt, Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Jordan, Syria, and Turkey. After his studies, he completed the trainee program in development studies at Berlin’s Center for Rural Development (Seminar für Ländliche Entwicklung, SLE) and worked as an officer for political cooperation for the German Federal Foreign Office in the OPT.