Paul Fishstein is a Non-Resident Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC). Paul has more than 40 years of experience in research, design, and management of economic development and assistance programs, with a focus on Afghanistan and South Asia.
Paul’s Afghanistan-related interests are economic growth, effectiveness of reconstruction assistance, refugees and migration, security-focused aid and development, and opium poppy and rural livelihoods.
From 2016-2020, Paul was a Supervisory Research Analyst at the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s Lessons Learned Program. Prior to that he served as Fellow at the Afghanistan-Pakistan Program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; Visiting Fellow at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University; and director of an independent, Kabul-based policy research institution.
Paul previously worked for non-governmental organizations managing refugee humanitarian assistance and public-health initiatives in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Romania, and Tanzania. Paul also worked as a researcher on food security at the World Bank.
Paul holds an MS in agricultural and resource economics from the University of Maryland and a BA in English literature and education from Beloit College.
