Dr. Mustafa Alani is a Senior Advisor at the GRC and Program Director in Security and Terrorism Studies. He is also an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in the United Kindgom. His research focuses on security developments in the Gulf region, with particular emphasis on Iraq and Iran, and on Islamist terrorist organizations and fundamentalist groups. Since 1988, Dr. al-Ani has acted as consultant and advisor to numerous official and non-governmental institutions, and has spoken in front of the House of Commons on a number of issues.

He is the author of Operation VANTAGE: British Military Intervention in Kuwait (London: LAAM, 1990); co-author of 'Saudi Arabia : The Threat from Within,' Jane's Intelligence Review (no. 12), of Jane's Sentinel Annual Report on Saudi Arabia (1996), and of The Future of Iraqi Oil (New Venture Guide) (Robertson Research International, 1998). He has also authored numerous articles and reports on security developments in Iraq, Iran and the GCC. He holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Exeter, an MA in International Relations from Keele University and a BA in Politics from the University of Baghdad.

more details >>

Dr. Christian Koch is the Director of International Studies at the Gulf Research Center located in Dubai, UAE. Prior to his appointment, he worked as Head of the Strategic Studies Section at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, Abu Dhabi. Dr. Koch received his Ph.D. from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany with a thesis on the role of voluntary association in the political development of Kuwait. He also studied at the American University in Washington, D.C. and the University of South Carolina. Dr. Koch has published on various issues related to Middle East political development and Gulf strategic issues and is a regular contributor to regional newspapers and media. He is the editor of Unfulfilled Potential: Exploring the GCC-EU Relationship (Dubai: Gulf Research Center, 2004) and of the Gulf Yearbook (2005 to 2008 Edition) as well as co-editor of Gulf Security in the Twenty-First Century (Abu Dhabi: ECSSR, 1997) and A Window of Opportunity: Europe, Gulf Security and the Aftermath of the Iraq War (Dubai: Gulf Research Center, 2005). He has contributed numerous chapters to edited volumes including Elections in Asia: A Data Handbook (Oxford University Press, 2001); Der Irak: Ein Land zwischen Krieg und Frieden (Palmyra, 2003) und Der Islam in der Gegenwart (München: C.H. Beck, 5. Auflage, 2006). Dr. Koch also serves as a contributor to Jane’s Sentinel Publications on Gulf issues. He is a member of the advisory board of the German Orient Foundation since January 2007.

more details >>

Dr. Eckart Woertz is Director of Economic Studies at the GRC. He has been a visiting fellow at Princeton University and has held senior positions in financial services companies in Germany and the UAE, amongst them Delbrück & Co one of the oldest German private banks. His research interests include the political economy of the Middle East, financial markets and energy issues.

Dr. Woertz is a regular contributor to the region's leading newspapers and TV channels. In February 2005, he published "The Role of Gold in the Unified GCC Currency", where he predicted a long-term bull market in the precious metal. In his GRC publication “GCC Stock Markets at Risk”, he warned at the beginning of 2006 about the following stock market crash in the GCC. He has also dealt extensively with petrodollar recycling, strategic foreign investments and the impact of the global financial crisis on the GCC countries. Since 2008 Middle East food security has been a special interests of his. He holds an MA in Middle Eastern Studies and a PhD in Economics from Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he conducted research about structural adjustment politics in Egypt.

more details >>

Professor Giacomo Luciani is Senior Advisor, Gulf Research Center and Director, The Gulf Institute (GRC) Geneva Office. Since 1997, he has been Professorial Lecturer of Middle Eastern Studies at the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Centre. From 2000-06, he was Professor of Political Economy and co-director of the Mediterranean Programme of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute. He has been visiting professor at the CAP, Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität in München, Germany (2004-05), Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po), Paris (1994-97) and the Department of Economics at UCLA (1986-88). From May 1990-May 2000, Prof. Luciani worked with ENI as Vice President in charge of international intelligence and major strategic projects involving several lines of business. Earlier, during 1988-90, he was Plan Operations Manager, SRI International team, at the Ministry of Planning, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. From 1977-1986, Prof. Luciani, who began his career as an economist with the Bank of Italy, was associated with the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), first as Director of Economic Studies, then as Director of Studies. He founded and directed the Institute for Research on International Economics (IRECI) from 1974-77. (IRECI merged with the IAI in 1977).

Prof. Luciani’s research interests include Political economy of the Middle East and North Africa and Geopolitics of energy. His name is primarily associated with work on the rentier state in the Arab world. In the 1980s he directed a pioneering project entitled “Nation, State Integration in the Arab World” which led to the publication of a set of four volumes, including “The Rentier State” (edited with Hazem Beblawi), and “The Politics of Arab Integration” (edited with Ghassan Salame’), and of a subsequent summary volume under the title “The Arab State” (1990). Subsequently, he continued to work on the concept and impact of the rentier state, in particular with respect to democratization in the Arab world.

Prof. Luciani’s recent publications include: “Constitutional Reform and Political Participation in the Gulf” (co-editor and co-author), Gulf Research Center, 2006; “Regime Change in Iraq: the Transatlantic and Regional Dimensions” (co-editor and co-author) RSCAS, 2004; and “Relations Between the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past Record and Promises for the Future”, with T. Schumacher, Gulf Research Center, 2004. He is also editor and co-author of a series of four volumes on the EUROGULF project being published by the Gulf Research Center in English and Arabic.

more details >>

Dr. Mohammad Aly Raouf Abdul-Hamid is a Program Manager - Environment Research at the GRC and the Secretary-General of the Egyptian Forum on Environment and Sustainable Development. Prior to holding this position, he worked as a freelance consultant and lecturer in Environmental Accounting and Economics at the Environmental Institute at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, where he participated in a number of conferences and consultancy projects. He has also served as a consultant in the Government of Egypt’s Ministry of Industry and a financial analyst for the Badr Petrolreum Company (BAPETCO).

Dr. Raouf has authored a number of articles on environmental accounting, contracting and decision-making for publications both in Egypt and elsewhere, and has also submitted a number of conference papers on similar subjects. He received his doctorate in Environmental Sciences from Ain Shams University in October 2003 and has since participated in a number of training courses in economics, accounting, business administration and environmental sciences.

more details >>

Dr. Abdullah Baabood
Director
Centre of Islamic Studies
Gulf Research Centre - Cambridge

Contact Information:
Tel: +44 (0)1223-746695
email: Dr. Abdullah Baabood

Dr. Abdullah Baabood is the director of the Gulf Research Centre at the University of Cambridge. Abdullah graduated with a Master’s in Business Administration, a Master’s in International Relations as well as a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Cambridge, UK.

Dr. Baabood has a general interest in International Politics and Economics, particularly in the areas of globalization and regionalism. His research interest also focuses on the GCC states’ economic, social and political development and GCC’s external relations. He has published, presented and attended several International seminars and workshops on these topics. Dr. Baabood is a member of a number of academic and professional bodies and holds board memberships for several business organizations and committees.

more details >>

Nicole Stracke holds a MSc Pol. in Middle Eastern Politics from London's School of Oriental and African Studies and is currently working as a researcher in the Department of Security and Terrorism Studies at the Gulf Research Center. She is the editor of the Security and Terrorism Bulletin covering hard and soft security issues in the Gulf. Her research interests include the current security developments in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Yemen with special focus on counter-terrorism and the development of mechanisms to overcome regional threat perceptions. Ms. Stracke's articles are published regularly in the region's leading newspapers including Daily Star, Arab News and Khaleej Times.

more details >>

Dr. Hasanain Tawfiq is Senior Advisor at the GRC and member of the editorial board. He is concurrently a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Cairo University and has also served as a Senior Advisor in the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Interior, where he chaired the Department of Planning and Studies for three years. His research focuses on Arab political systems and political culture as well as on issues of political Islam and democratization, with special emphasis on Egypt.

Tawfik is the author of numerous books on the Arab World, the most recent of which include Political Reform in the GCC States (Dubai: Gulf Research Center) and New Directions in Studying Arab Politics (Beirut: Center for Arab Unity Studies). He has also published a number of chapters and articles on issues ranging from political developments in the Arab World to human rights and environmental issues. Dr. Tawfik received his BA, MA and PhD in Political Science from Cairo University.

more details >>

Dr. Klejda Mulaj obtained her PhD in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE (2004) where she has subsequently been a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for International Studies (2005-2006). She has held teaching appointments at the LSE, Goldsmiths College (University of London), and University of Malta. Her work has appeared in international journals such as Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Nationalities Papers, and Mediterranean Journal of Human Rights. Dr. Mulaj specializes in conflict, peace and security studies.

more details >>

Dr. Marat Terterov is the Program Moderator for the GCC-CIS Relations research program and a specialist with regards to key trends in Middle Eastern and Eurasian strategic, political and economic affairs. Prior to this, he served as a Senior Editor at Global Market Briefings Ltd in London, where he still works in an advisory capacity, and a specialist instructor on the Middle East and Central Asia at the Center for International Briefings in Farnham, England. He has also been awarded research positions in Cairo, Egypt and Oxford, England to carry out comparative studies in Middle Eastern and Central Asian Islamic fundamentalism.

Dr. Terterov has published extensively on relations between the GCC, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Russia for both print and online publications in the Middle East and elsewhere. He has also prepared documents and studies for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Government of Egypt. He was awarded a doctorate in Political Science from Oxford University in 2002 for his research on the state economy and privatization in Egypt.

more details >>

Dr. Samir Ranjan Pradhan is Senior Researcher at the Gulf Research Center. He is a trained economist and obtained his M.Phil and Ph.D degrees in West Asian Studies from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. His main areas of research include GCC Economies, Gulf-Asia economic interdependence, energy security in the perspective of international relations and world oil market developments. He is credited with several peer-reviewed publications and has authored a book titled "India and GCC: Synergizing Energy Interdependence"(New Delhi, ORF-Academic Foundation, 2007).

more details >>

Bhuvaneswari Kannan is the Executive Secretary to the Chairman of the GRC. Prior to this, she worked as the Executive Secretary to the General Manager of Prime International Corporation, Ltd. in Tanzania and also to the Vice President of HCL-HP. She is fluent in Hindi, Tamil, English and Kiswahili.

She holds a postgraduate diploma in Computer Applications and a BA in English Literature from Madras University in India. She also holds additional qualifications in accounting and payroll management, and can type 100 words per minute in English.

Dr. Oskar Ziemelis is the Director of Cooperation at GRC, responsible for internal cooperation (management and administrative issues) and external cooperation with other organizations and individuals. He received a BSc in Physics from McMaster University in Canada in 1974. This was followed by MSc (1976) and PhD (1981) degrees in Plasma Physics and Solid State Physics respectively from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. After completing his doctorate, he carried out research work at Princeton University and the University of Paris.

Dr. Ziemelis has worked in Europe and the Middle East as a consultant for Siemens Business Services in the areas of business & systems analysis/modeling as well as system modeling methodologies and related computer tools. He has considerable Information Technology management experience and has a variety of publications to his credit. At GRC, he served initially as Information Technology Director. His current areas of focus include the use of Information Technology systems to enhance learning, e-education, and human relation (cooperation) as well as human potential issues.

Abdullah Mohammad Dagamseh is Editor in Charge, Gulf in the Media Arabic since 2003. He has also worked as an assistant teacher at the Hashemite University, Jordan. He has an M.A. in International Relations (2000) and a B.A. in Political Science (1996) and is a member of the Dubai Press Club.

Ayman AlBarasneh is Web Content Manager at the GRC, where he monitors the website, collects materials to build up the databases for all research programs, and supervises and follows up the data entry process. Prior to this, he was the Director of Political Studies at the Arab Institute for Research and Strategic Studies in Amman, Jordan, where he participated in the establishment of the institute, and a Coordinator at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. He holds an MA in Political Science from Jordan University and a BA in the same field from Yarmouk University in Jordan.

Dr. Sulayman Awad Ibrahim is in charge of the translation of various books, research papers and documents from English into Arabic and vice versa. He also reviews the contents of the original texts and summarizes notes to ensure there are no copyrights, legal or other cultural issues are contravened. Dr. Ibrahim checks original texts or confers with authors to ensure translations retain the content, meaning and feeling of the original material. He also proofreads translated documents to ensure accuracy and consistency, particularly with regards to technical terms.

Dr. Ibrahim had formerly taught a number of literature, drama and writing courses at the Lebanese American University, Beirut Arab University and the Lebanese University. He was also a senior translator and editor of political news in the Near East region at the Arab Information Bank. He had attended courses on teaching English for special purposes with Ford Foundation and participated in dozens of conferences and workshops held on translation, higher education, regional security and international relations.

Faleh Al Enezy is the editor in charge of Araa Magazine. Prior to this he served as a Web Content Administrator and website guru at the GRC. He holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Baghdad and taught the subject in Amman, Jordan for a number of years. He also holds certificates in computer science and administrative development from institutions in both Jordan and the UAE and is fluent in both Arabic and English.