Cheryl Benard

Who is Cheryl Benard?

Cheryl Benard is an adjunct researcher with the RAND Corporation and President of ARCH International, a DC-based non-profit research and advocacy organization dedicated to the support of cultural activism in all situations of post-conflict. Previously she was the research director of a European think tank, the Boltzmann Institute of Politics and prior to that, she taught Political Science at the University of Vienna.

She is a novelist and a widely published author on topics including popular sociology, refugees, women in nation-building, youth radicalization in the European Diaspora, and humanitarian aid. Her books have been translated into many other languages and some were best-sellers in Europe. Benard received her Ph.D. from the University of Vienna and a B.A. from the American University of Beirut.

She is married to Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Afghanistan and Iraq. She and Khalilzad have two sons, Alexander and Maximilian.

Benard has an entry in the Internet Movie Database from her work as a child actor in German movies.