Ethan Chorin

Chorin began his career as a business developer with Shell Oil.[1][2] In 2004 he joined the U.S. Foreign Service, and was one of a small number of U.S. diplomats posted to Libya (2004-2006) immediately following the U.S. rapprochement with Gaddafi c. 2004.[3] He served in Libya as the Economic and Commercial attaché from 2004-2006, and was subsequently posted to Washington, D.C. and the United Arab Emirates. From 2008-2011 he was Senior Manager for Communications, and then Government Relations, at Dubai Ports World (DP World),[4] and was head of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program from 2009-2011.[5]

Chorin returned to Libya in July, 2011 as co-founder of the 501c(3) non-profit Avicenna Group, to assist with post-revolutionary medical capacity-building.[6] As part of this effort, he recruited Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to work with Benghazi Medical Center (BMC, on a program to build trauma capacity in Benghazi.[7] The MOU for this project was signed a day before the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, was to visit BMC to express support for the project the following day.[8] Chorin has written several pieces on the impact of that attack on U.S. foreign policy in the region.[9][10]

Chorin was a Director at Berkeley Research Group (BRG) from 2012-2013, before founding Perim Associates, which advises international law firms and governments. As CEO of Perim Associates, Chorin created the 2015 ministerial East Africa Environmental Risk & Opportunity “ERO” Summit, held in Djibouti, and hosted by the President of the Republic of Djibouti.[11][12] Yale University Climate and Energy Center played a prominent role in the conference,[13] which was highlighted by Secretary of State John Kerry in a Djibouti press conference.[14]

Chorin has spoken and testified on Libya before bodies such as the NATO Parliamentary Assembly[15] and the U.S. Congress. He has been a frequent commentator on Libya for the BBC.[16]

Chorin has written two books on Libya. Translating Libya (2008, Saqi Books-SOAS)[17] is known as one of the most significant English language sources on Libyan short fiction.[18][19][20][21] It is a collection of translations of 16 short stories set in various locations in Libya, interspersed with Chorin’s travelogue and social commentary. Darf Publishers published an expanded edition in 2015 with a foreword by Libyan novelist Ahmed Ibrahim Fagih.[22]”

Chorin’s second book, Exit the Colonel: The Hidden History of the Libyan Revolution, traces the origins of the 2011 Libyan Revolution.[23][24][25] Libya historian Dirk Vandewalle called Exit The Colonel “undoubtedly...the best analytical work on Libya and its revolution for a very long time.[26]"Middle East constitutional lawyer and ex-Lebanese Presidential candidate Chibli Mallat[27] noted that Chorin had “reconstructed the murky events (of the first few days of the Revolution) in remarkable detail.[28]”

Chorin holds a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in Agricultural and Resource Economics (2000).[29] Chorin received a master's degree from Stanford University in International Policy Studies (1993)[30] and a bachelor's degree from Yale University in Near Eastern Literature and Civilizations (1991), cum laude, with Distinction in the major[31]

Chorin was a Fulbright Fellow in Amman, Jordan (1994-1995),[32] an IIE Fulbright Hays Doctoral Research Fellow in Aden, Yemen (1998-1999),[33] and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the Ecole polytechnique, France (1993-1994)[34]

Chorin has been a Social Enterprise Fellow at the Yale School of Management (SOM) (2012),[35] a Non-Resident Fellow at the Dubai School of Government (2009-2011),[36] He was a member of the 2008 Obama Campaign’s Foreign Policy Advisory Group.[37] He was recipient of a U.S. Department of State Meritorious Honor Award for his work in Libya, and a Sinclaire Award for language achievement in Persian[38]

Chorin was born New York City, and grew up in Berkeley, California. He is the son of mathematician Alexander Joel Chorin and Alice Jones Chorin.

• Chorin, Ethan (2008). Translating Libya. PublicAffairs. p. 238. ISBN 978-0863566479.
• Chorin, Ethan (2012). Exit the Colonel. Saqi Books-SOAS. pp. 384. ISBN 978-1610391719.
• Chorin, Ethan (2019). How America Lost the Middle East. C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd. p. 224. ISBN 978-1787381292.

• Chorin, Ethan, Benghazi's Karmic Revenge - FORBES Nov 20, 2016
• Chorin, Ethan, “Articulating a Dubai Model of Development: The Case of Djibouti, Dubai School of Government, 2010 (monograph)
• Chorin, Ethan, NATO’s Libya Intervention and the continued case for a Responsibility to Rebuild, in In Boston University International Law Journal, Summer, 2013.
• Chorin, Ethan, The Future of the U.S.-Libya Commercial Relationship, in Vandewalle, Dirk, Libya since 1969: Qadhafi’s Revolution Revisited, Palgrave-MacMillan, 2008: New York
• Chorin, Ethan, “What Libya Lost”, in the New York Times, September 13, 2012 : https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/opinion/what-libya-lost-when-ambassador-stevens-died.html?_r=0
• Chorin, Ethan, The Deeper Blame for Benghazi.” In the New York Times, May 14, 2013: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/opinion/the-deeper-blame-for-benghazi.html
• Chorin, Ethan “The New Danger in Benghazi”, in the New York Times, May 28, 2014: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/28/opinion/the-new-danger-in-benghazi.html
• Chorin, Ethan, “The New Pirates of Libya” in Foreign Policy, March 2, 2015 https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/03/the-new-pirates-of-libya/
• Chorin, Ethan, The U.S. Commercial Guide to Libya, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Commerce, 2006
• Chorin, Ethan, The Graffiti of Benghazi, in Words Without Borders, July, 2011: http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/the-graffiti-of-benghazi
• Chorin, Ethan, “New Government May Cause Splits”, in Prospect Magazine, August 14, 2015: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/the-plan-for-peace-in-libya-could-cause-further-splits
• Chorin, Ethan, “Setting the Record Straight on Benghazi”, in Foreign Affairs, February 10, 2010. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/libya/2016-02-10/setting-record-straight-benghazi
• Chorin, Ethan, “A Curious Twist of Fate for Libya and its Rogue General.” Forbes, December 22, 2015: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ethanchorin/2015/12/22/a-curious-twist-of-fate-for-libya-and-its-rogue-general/#4844a28c672b
• Homeless rats: A parable for postrevolution libya | wordswithoutborders.org