Senior Policy Fellow
Middle East; Israel/Palestine; Western Sahara; conflict resolution; international law and armed conflict
English, Arabic, French
Hugh Lovatt is a senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Since joining ECFR, Lovatt has advised European policymakers on the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process, domestic Palestinian politics, and Israeli regional policy. He is regularly interviewed and quoted in international media, including by the New York Times, BBC, Christian Science Monitor, Financial Times, AFP, Le Monde, France24, and Al Jazeera.
Lovatt co-led a 2016 track-II initiative to draft an updated set of final status parameters to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has worked to advance the concept of EU Differentiation, which was enshrined in UN Security Council Resolution 2334. Lovatt also co-developed an innovative online project mapping Palestinian politics. His most recent publications include Rethinking Oslo: How Europe can promote peace in Israel-Palestine (July 2017), Back to democracy: Europe, Hamas, and the Palestinian elections (March 2021), and Free to choose: A new plan for peace in Western Sahara (May 2021).
Prior to this, Lovatt worked as a researcher for International Crisis Group and as a Schuman Fellow in the European Parliament focusing on Middle-East policy. He also worked for Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations as an Arabic translator.
Lovatt studied Arabic at the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies at Exeter University as well as at the Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO) in Damascus. He then went on to earn an MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he majored in Anthropology. Lovatt is Chairman of the Brussels-based European Middle East Project (EuMEP).
The EU’s highest court has again backed Western Sahara self-determination. It is now time for the EU’s political institutions to bring their policy into line with the law – for the benefit of regional peace.
As countries across the Middle East pause to take stock of recent conflicts, Europeans need to do more to support dialogue
The UN should pursue a “free association” option for Western Sahara – a third way that offers a realistic means of fulfilling Sahrawi self-determination
By cancelling Palestine’s first elections in 15 years, President Mahmoud Abbas has relinquished Palestinian democracy and national reunification, and is setting the stage for future turmoil
Discussion about the political shifts from the March Israeli elections and dynamics surrounding the upcoming Palestinian elections
The EU and the US have a decisive role to play in ensuring the electoral process succeeds. In doing so, they can support Palestinian political renewal and improve prospects for a sustainable peace agreement with Israel.
In the coming weeks, the US and the E3 should make clear to Israel that reviving the original Iran nuclear deal is still the best means of addressing its immediate security concerns
The EU should commit to respecting the results of free and fair elections in Palestine, and to engaging with any government that emerges from them
Europe has a legitimate interest in maintaining close relations with Morocco. But this should not come at the expense of its commitment to international law and Sahrawi rights
Instead of its rigid focus on the Oslo peace process, the EU should craft a new peacemaking paradigm based on equality and deoccupation
The UN should pursue a “free association” option for Western Sahara – a third way that offers a realistic means of fulfilling Sahrawi self-determination
The EU and the US have a decisive role to play in ensuring the electoral process succeeds. In doing so, they can support Palestinian political renewal and improve prospects for a sustainable peace agreement with Israel.
Instead of its rigid focus on the Oslo peace process, the EU should craft a new peacemaking paradigm based on equality and deoccupation
Introduction War threatens to engulf Gaza’s fragile calm. In each of the three recent conflicts that have shaken the Gaza Strip, fighting between Palestinian factions…
How should the EU respond to the reality of the one-state reality taking hold in Israel-Palestine?
The Oslo Accords have provided political cover for Israel’s creeping occupation and eroded the possibility of Palestinian self-determination
Renewed focus on differentiation one of few hopes for saving the two state solution
The sixth ECFR Foreign Policy Scorecard highlights the EU’s diminishing ability to influence its neighbours, and the neighbourhood’s growing impact on the EU
The EU needs to act faster and further in ensuring that Israeli settlements in no way benefit from EU-Israel bilateral relations
The EU’s highest court has again backed Western Sahara self-determination. It is now time for the EU’s political institutions to bring their policy into line with the law – for the benefit of regional peace.
As countries across the Middle East pause to take stock of recent conflicts, Europeans need to do more to support dialogue
By cancelling Palestine’s first elections in 15 years, President Mahmoud Abbas has relinquished Palestinian democracy and national reunification, and is setting the stage for future turmoil
In the coming weeks, the US and the E3 should make clear to Israel that reviving the original Iran nuclear deal is still the best means of addressing its immediate security concerns
The EU should commit to respecting the results of free and fair elections in Palestine, and to engaging with any government that emerges from them
Europe has a legitimate interest in maintaining close relations with Morocco. But this should not come at the expense of its commitment to international law and Sahrawi rights
Victory for Joe Biden is likely to bring three big policy shifts in the region, opening new possibilities and challenges for Europeans
The Israel-UAE peace deal provides multiple wins for both countries, and for the US. But it could yet deepen the region’s political fault lines.
West Bank annexation will bring an end to the EU’s cherished two-state solution. International norms and the EU’s own laws will now need to underpin post-annexation relations with Israel.
Urgent intervention can mitigate the worst effects of the pandemic. But the EU should also help Gaza escape its man-made crisis.
European governments need a deeper engagement strategy to draw these powerful actors into inclusive political processes and power-sharing structures that can help stabilise the region
The eastern Mediterranean is becoming ever more perilous as geopolitical fault lines steadily enmesh the region. These rifts emerge from the Cyprus ‘frozen conflict’, competition for valuable gas fields, and the increasingly entangled wars in Libya and Syria.
Turmoil in the Middle East and north Africa directly affects Europeans. Yet their influence in the region has never been weaker. This project maps Europe’s role across the Middle East and north Africa, making the case that Europeans can do more to leverage their influence in pursuit of core interests
ECFR’s Differentiation Tracker provides a snapshot of third state relations with Israel – and the extent to which these contain a clearly defined territorial definition that explicitly excludes Israeli settlements constructed on occupied territory in line with UNSCR 2334
An ECFR guide to the key disputes threatening to spark a wider Middle Eastern war
This interactive web project charts the constellation of political players as Palestinians approach a period of political change. Over 100 pen portraits reveal new insights into the personalities and power structures that will shape the future of Palestinian politics.
ECFR’s innovative project Two State Stress Test provides a health-check on whether developments across seven different areas are serving to strain or sustain a possible two-state outcome for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Discussion about the political shifts from the March Israeli elections and dynamics surrounding the upcoming Palestinian elections
In this special ECFR discussion, MENA Policy Fellow Hugh Lovatt interviews Daniel Seidemann, the Founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem and an Israeli attorney that specialises in…
When US-President Donal Trump revealed his much-awaited plan for peace for Israel and Palestine it was set to solve one of the world's longest-running conflict
Podcast de notre discussion du 19 juin « The future of Israeli-Palestinian conflict: towards annexation and illiberalism? » en présence de Yehuda Shaul,…
Ruth Citrin speaks with Ellie Geranmayeh, Julien Barnes-Dacey and Hugh Lovatt, about the state of play in the MENA region and the considerations for Europeans…
Mark Leonard speaks with ECFR Policy Fellows Hugh Lovatt, Ellie Geranmayeh and Julien Barnes-Dacey about reactions to Trump’s recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital…
Nouveau podcast de notre série sur les présidentielles de 2017 ayant pour objectif de traiter les thèmes d'actualité et de contribuer au débat…
ECFR’s director Mark Leonard speaks with ECFR's Middle East and North Africa Progamme Director, Ruth Citrin, and ECFR Policy Fellows, Ellie Geranmayeh and Hugh Lovatt,…
Hugh Lovatt speaks to Fadi Quran, activist, senior campaigner for Avaaz, and according to the Time magazine “the new face of the Middle East”
ECFR's Hugh Lovatt and Mattia Toaldo speak to independent journalist and editor Noam Sheizaf, who has previously worked for a number of Israeli news…
I think now they are having to pay the consequences of that very short sighted approach to the issue
Hugh Lovatt describes the EU policy’s on Western Sahara as one viewed “exclusively through the prism of its relations with Rabat.”
It is clear that the two countries do already enjoy a significant level of political and security dialogue
Hugh Lovatt on how the UAE-Israel ties bear fruit
It is unlikely that Ryad, under the governance of king Salmane, would formally normalize the relations with Israël.
Hugh Lovatt is quoted in Ouest France on the relations between Israël and the UAE
This formula of “calm in exchange for Israel’s help” has been in place for years, with always the same unresolved obstacles.
Hugh Lovatt is quoted in L’Express on the new development plan of Israelian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Riyadh appears unlikely to formally normalise ties with Israel under King Salman. But it is clear that the two countries do already enjoy a significant level of political and security dialogue.
Hugh Lovatt argues that the normalisation of ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel remains unlikely
