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Peter Quaranto

Visiting Professor of the Practice

Peter Quaranto, a man with short brown hair, glasses, and a navy blazer smiles in front of an out-of-focus background featuring light-colored columns.
Office
1010 Jenkins Nanovic Halls
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Email
pquarant@nd.edu

Biography

Peter J. Quaranto is a visiting professor of the practice and distinguished global policy fellow in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. At the Keough School, he serves as faculty editor of the Peace Policy publication of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. In Washington, D.C., Quaranto concurrently works as the Foreign Policy Legislative Director for the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), the Quaker lobby in the public interest. He also serves as co-chair of the “Future of Peace and Security Coalition,” which he started with the Alliance for Peacebuilding, FCNL, and a wide range of civil society peacebuilding organizations in the United States and worldwide.

Quaranto has two decades of experience working across the U.S. Department of State, White House, Congress, and with civil society to elevate peacebuilding and conflict prevention in foreign policy efforts. Previously, Quaranto served as the acting principal deputy assistant secretary in the Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict & Stabilization Operations (CSO). In this and other leadership roles within CSO, he worked to enhance U.S. diplomacy to anticipate, prevent, and respond to violent conflict around the world. Quaranto was at the center of implementing the landmark Global Fragility Act law, including authoring the related Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability. Within the U.S. Office of Foreign Assistance, he led major research initiatives to optimize foreign aid to conflict-affected states: the Strategic Prevention Project (2019) and the Stabilization Assistance Review (2018).

Much of Quaranto’s work has focused on sub-Saharan Africa. From 2021 to 2022, he worked on the White House National Security Council staff as Director for the Horn of Africa & Great Lakes regions. In this capacity, he directed administration efforts to respond to the expanding civil war in northern Ethiopia. Within the State Department, Quaranto served as a member of a U.S. negotiations support team supporting peace negotiations between parties in Sudan. From 2011 to 2014, he guided the U.S. strategy to end the threat posed by the Lord’s Resistance Army and help protect vulnerable communities. Previously, in roles as a congressional staffer and activist, Quaranto spearheaded legislation to shift international policies to better support local violence reduction and peacebuilding initiatives in central Africa.

Quaranto was named a 2025-2026 Leadership in Government Fellow, a program that supports experienced public servants who have dedicated their careers to advancing economic, social, and racial justice. Previously, as a Marshall Scholar, Quaranto received masters’ degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of Bradford. He earned a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, including a supplementary major in peace studies. Quaranto and his partner Jess (who together were co-recipients of the Yarrow Award in Peace Studies in 2006!) live with their children in Silver Spring, Maryland.

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