Claude Bruderlein is Adjunct Lecturer on Global Health at the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Healthand and Senior Researcher at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. He also holds a secondary appointment at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he teaches strategic planning and frontline negotiation. In his research, Mr. Bruderlein focuses particularly on the conduct of negotiation in complex and hostile environments.
He served as Strategic Advisor to the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, focusing on strategic relationships, communities of practice and institutional development. He also founded the Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation (CCHN), a joint endeavour of the ICRC, the World Food Program (WFP), the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and Médecins- Sans-Frontières (Doctors-Without-Borders) (MSF). In 2010, he co-founded the International Association of Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection and serves as its first President of the Board until 2012.
Before joining Harvard University, Mr. Bruderlein served as Special Adviser om Humanitarian Affairs to the UN Secretary General, focusing particularly on issues related to the negotiation of humanitarian access and the targeting of sanctions. He worked on negotiation of access in Afghanistan and North Korea. He also served as an independent expert to the UN Security Council on the humanitarian impact of sanctions in Sudan, Burundi, and Sierra Leone. He has previously worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as a field delegate in Iran, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Yemen.
During the Winter Session 2026, Claude Bruderlein will be teaching an intensive one-week Frontline Negotiation Lab. The Frontline Negotiation Lab (IGA 353 / GHP 543) is designed to equip students with the skills and frameworks needed to navigate complex crises and engage in frontline negotiations under adversarial conditions. Its objective is to help students analyze political environments during humanitarian, social, and climate emergencies, design negotiation strategies that incorporate scenarios and red lines, and engage stakeholders through professional dialogue. By combining experiential learning, simulations, and direct interaction with seasoned practitioners, the course provides practical tools to plan and conduct complex negotiations. It also encourages critical reflection on negotiation practices in high-intensity contexts such as pandemics, armed conflicts, natural disasters, and political unrest. An optional AI Negotiation Lab extends the course by exploring the integration of artificial intelligence into negotiation planning and practice.
Prof. Bruderlein teaches a Spring course on “Conducting Negotiation on the Frontlines” (MLD 234) cross-listed at the Harvard School of Public Health (GHP 243) during which students are exposed to frontlines negotiation practices in diverse situations of social unrest.