Bornstein is a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State. She previously worked as Director of External Relations and Researcher at Mitvim – The Institute for Regional Foreign Policies in Israel. She wrote Mitvim’s monthly report on U.S. Middle East policy, and the trends that influence US policy towards the region, with a specific focus on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Syria, and Iran. Mitvim is an independent, progressive think tank that works to advance Israeli-Arab peace and effective civil society cooperation in the Middle East. She also provided expertise and analysis on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and Iran’s nuclear program. She received an MA in Security and Diplomacy Magna Cum Laude, from Tel Aviv University in 2014. She also volunteers with the Tel Aviv African Refugee Development Center.
After her fellowship, she was hired as a research fellow with the Stimson Center’s Nuclear Weapons in International Security program through the end of 2008, where she researched and wrote on verification and enforcement scenarios, both historical and hypothetical, under nuclear disarmament treaties. This work was done collaboratively with the Stimson team and for use in the Global Zero nuclear disarmament project. Her research resulted in the chapter “Enforcing a Nuclear Disarmament Treaty” that appeared in the in the Stimson book Elements of a Nuclear Disarmament Treaty that was published in January 2010.