Johnny Walsh

Deputy Assistant Administrator Johnny Walsh oversees DDI’s Center for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance. Walsh was most recently a Senior Expert at the United States Institute of Peace from 2017 to 2021.

Walsh previously served in government in a range of foreign policy roles, including as the U.S. Mission to the United Nations' Senior Policy Advisor for the Middle East and South Asia, two stints as the State Department's lead advisor on Afghanistan's peace process, and tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He has extensive additional policy experience on Pakistan, Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula, and North Africa.

Walsh holds a master's degree in Middle Eastern Studies and a bachelor's in International History, both from Harvard University.  He is also an accomplished musician who joined with Afghan-American virtuoso Qais Essar to compose an opera entitled Tear a Root From the Earth, which uses Afghan and American folk music to chronicle the two countries' recent history together.