Dr Rebecca Brubaker is Senior Policy Adviser at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research in New York, focusing on Security Council affairs, multi-lateralism, sanctions, mediation, migration, refugees, and humanitarianism. An expert on UN sanctions, Dr Brubaker served as an adviser on cross-cutting policy issues through the 2014 High Level Review of UN Sanctions and as a co-coordinator of the UN Inter-Agency Working Group on Sanctions. She co-authored the Inter-Agency Working Group’s inputs to the 2014 High Level Review of UN Sanctions as well as various reports relating to the design, implementation and adjustment of this coercive tool.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Dr Brubaker served as a scholar and visiting lecturer on international affairs, post-conflict studies, and refugee and migration policy at the University of Oxford, Yale University, University of Virginia, the Free University of Brussels (ULB), and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva). Her doctoral research centred on the politics of return and reintegration of displaced persons following ethnic conflict.

In parallel to her scholarship, Dr Brubaker has served as a consultant and adviser to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations Development Programme, and the International Criminal Court.

In addition to her work as an international civil servant and in academia, Dr Brubaker has served in the private and non-profit sector on mediation and negotiation process design and overseen multi-stakeholder disputes.

She holds a Doctorate and Master’s from the University of Oxford and a BA from Swarthmore College.