Sanam Naraghi Anderlini MBE joined LSE as Director of the Centre for Women, Peace and Security in December 2019. Sanam is a globally recognised advocate in the field of women, peace and security, with 24 years’ experience as a peace strategist working on conflicts, crises and violent extremism with a mix of civil society, governments and the UN. Sanam is the founder and CEO of the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) where she spearheads the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) comprising independent women-led organisations active in 40 countries, preventing violence and promoting peace, rights and pluralism. 

In 2000, she was a civil society leader and drafter of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security and in 2011 she was the first Senior Expert on Gender and Inclusion on the UN’s Mediation Standby Team, working on Somalia, Libya and Syria among other cases. Working with UNFPA in Nepal, she led the first assessment team into Maoist cantonments. Between 2008-2010, Sanam was Lead Consultant for a 10-country UNDP global initiative on “Gender, Community Security and Social Cohesion” with a focus on men’s experiences in crisis settings.

Her current appointments include serving on the Steering Board of the UK’s National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security, the Commonwealth’s Panel of Experts on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), UNDP’s Civil Society Advisory Council and as adjunct professor at Columbia University. She was the 2014 recipient of the UN Association Perdita Huston Award for human rights and the 2016 Greeley Peace Scholar at the University of Massachusetts. Her media appearances include the BBC World Service television and radio. Her editorials have appeared in The Guardian, Foreign Affairs, Open Democracy, Ms. Magazine and other publications.

She is the author of Women Building Peace; What they do, Why it matters and has been an adjunct professor at Columbia and Georgetown Universities. She was appointed to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours list for services to International peacebuilding and Women’s Rights.

Selected Articles and Publications: 

• LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security and International Civil Society Action Network, Recognizing Women Peacebuilders: Critical Actors in Effective Peacemaking, October 2020.
  
• Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, "Where are the women peacemakers?", Le Monde Diplomatique, August 2020.
• "Sanam Naraghi Anderlini on Gucci gangsters and Yemeni mums" The Mediator's Studio, 7th July, 2020.
• Reimagining Victory: Debate: The West Should Not Use Military Force to Prevent Mass Atrocities, Imperial War Museum, 12 July 2020.