 gregory aftandilian gregory aftandilian is a senior fellow for the middle east at the center for national policy in washington dc he is specialist on middle east affairs and us foreign policy having spent over 21 years in government service most recently on capitol hill mr aftandilian was foreign policy advisor to congressman chris van hollen 200708 professional staff member of the senate foreign relations committee and foreign policy adviser to senator paul sarbanes 200004 and foreign policy fellow to senator edward kennedy 1999 prior to these positions mr aftandilian worked for 13 years as a middle east analyst at the us department of state where he was a recipient of the department s superior honor award for his analyses on egypt his other government experiences include analytic work on middle east affairs for the us department of defense and the library of congress mr aftandilian was a research fellow at the kennedy school of government at harvard university 200607 and an international affairs fellow at the council on foreign relations in new york 199192 mr aftandilian worked as a consultant on egyptian affairs for the national democratic institute for international affairs 20052006 and was a counterterrorism consultant for an academic project at boston university mr aftandilian holds a ba in history from dartmouth college an ma in middle eastern studies from the university of chicago and an msc in international relations from the london school of economics  