Book Launch - A Rope from the Sky: The Making and Unmaking of the World's Newest State

Itinerary:
16:00-17:00: Coffee/tea reception (the Buttery)
17:00: Introduction (Investcorp Lecture Theatre)
17:10: Talk
17:40: Q&A session
18:30-19:00: Book signing

Zach Vertin is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center. He is also a lecturer of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. From 2013-2016 he served in the Obama Administration as director of policy for the US Special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, which spearheaded policymaking on behalf of the State Department and the White House. Vertin previously spent six years at the International Crisis Group, where he served as senior analyst for the Horn of Africa, and as advisor on peace operations and multilateral affairs in the UN Security Council.

Vertin has worked in conflict zones and on a range of peace processes and multilateral negotiations. He was a principal adviser to the chief mediator of the South Sudan peace process 2014-2016, and an architect of a U.S. diplomatic initiative that sought to catalyze change in Sudan by altering the U.S.-Sudan bilateral relationship, an effort that led to a presidential action in 2017. Vertin’s new book A Rope from the Sky: The Making and Unmaking of the World’s Newest State (Pegasus Books | Amberley Publishing) chronicles the turbulent birth – and subsequent collapse – of the Republic of South Sudan.

Vertin was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and has consulted for the International Peace Institute, the Atlantic Council, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is also a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has published reports, op-eds, and contributed expert commentary to television, radio, print, and online media for: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, LA Times, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Le Monde, Reuters, Bloomberg, Foreign Policy, and NPR.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University and master’s Degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.