Basma Alloush

Basma Alloush is a humanitarian policy practitioner with more than a decade of experience in strategic communications, policy advocacy, and humanitarian diplomacy to the role. Most recently, she served as External Relations Officer at UNHCR in Washington, DC, where she led engagement with the U.S. Executive Branch, NGOs, and think tanks and advised senior leadership on U.S. political dynamics. Previously, Basma was a Policy Advisor at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), leading policy and advocacy on the Middle East, Afghanistan, and restrictive measures, and spent over six years at the Norwegian Refugee Council in senior advocacy and communications roles, shaping U.S. strategies on major displacement crises and leading field-based advocacy and media efforts. Basma holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, where she focused on human security and transitional justice, and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance from Northeastern University. A Syrian American who grew up in six Middle Eastern countries, she is fluent in Arabic and English and brings a deeply personal, global perspective to her work.

Articles by: Basma Alloush

Memory, Return, and the Meaning of Home in Syria

Basma Alloush provides a personal account of returning to Syria after years of exile, tracing how war, a new regime, and a return that was previously unplausible have altered both the physical...

How Russia’s War in Ukraine is Impacting the MENA Region

As the war in Ukraine has been raging for over four months, there are growing concerns on its long-term effects on the countries from the MENA region that are particularly vulnerable due...

The Village of Khattab: A Syrian Story

This month, Syrians marked the eleventh anniversary of the Syrian revolution – a hopeful time when people defied decades of suppression to take to the streets demanding dignity, rights, and freedom. As...