Dr. Phil. Carsten Wieland is a German diplomat, and Middle East and conflict expert with senior mediation experience. He is an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and a Senior Associate of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Cyprus Centre. From 2014 to 2019, he served with three UN Special Envoys for Syria as Senior Expert for Intra-Syrian Talks and senior political advisor. He has also worked in the Syria team of the German Foreign Office and as director of the German Information Center for the Arab World in Cairo, and currently leads strategic evaluation at the Foreign Office in Berlin. From 2020 to 2025, he was Senior Policy Adviser for the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia in the Green Party's Bundestag group. He has published widely on Syria, nationalism, and ethnic conflict. His latest book, Syria and the Neutrality Trap (2021), examines humanitarian aid dilemmas under violent regimes.
