Palestinian–American Amjad Atallah is founder and President of Strategic Assessments Initiative (SAI), a not-for-profit organization committed to providing legal and policy assistance to parties involved in negotiations in conflict and post-conflict situations. SAI seeks to bridge the gap between conflict management as embodied in humanitarian assistance, development work and peace operations and conflict–resolution, which demands a greater investment of political will. Toward that end, SAI runs three innovative programs that link on-the-ground practicalities with the broader political concerns of the major stakeholders.

SAI is currently involved in a Peace, Media and Culture Program seeking to highlight successes in peace making, particularly among Palestinian and Israeli politicians and members of civil society through popular culture formats; a Stabilization Program in which SAI operates as an independent third party engaged by stakeholders in a conflict to provide assistance to all parties seeking a negotiated peace; and a Scenario Planning Program which applies long term planning methodologies to comprehensively address the factors contributing to a conflict—be they economic, developmental, cultural, environmental or geographic—and generates projections of where the conflict is likely to lead in the mid (5-10 year) term. Mr. Atallah travels regularly between Washington and the Middle East.

For the past three years before Mr. Atallah founded SAI, he advised the Palestinian negotiating team, and later Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas' office, in peace negotiations with Israel on the issues of international borders, security, and constitutional issues. He was also responsible for liaising with US government officials in Washington, D.C. on these issues. He was responsible for coordinating Palestinian cooperation with the Sharm El-Sheikh Fact Finding Committee (the Mitchell Commission), the General Zinni and Secretary of State Powell missions, and was heavily involved in discussions pertaining to the Quartet "Roadmap", including monitoring mechanisms and other forms of third party involvement.

Mr. Atallah has most recently contributed to SAI's authoritative report assessing the Palestinian security forces, Planning Considerations for International Involvement in the Palestinian Security Sector (July 2005). Mr. Atallah has also co-authored papers on the issue of third party involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict including Planning Considerations For International Involvement In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Part I (Jan. 2003), Planning Considerations For International Involvement In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Part II (April 2003) and Planning Considerations for International Involvement in an Israeli Withdrawal from Palestinian Territory (May 2004). He has also co-authored Issues Of "Trusteeship" In The West Bank And Gaza Strip, presented to the British Foreign Commonwealth Office in December 2002.