Noha Aboueldahab is a Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center. Since 2003, she has worked in the fields of international law, human rights, and development at various United Nations agencies and NGOs, with field missions and research trips to South America, the Middle East, East Asia, and Europe. She has guest lectured courses on law and anthropology at Northwestern University in Qatar and on law and development at Melbourne Law School, served as a judge at Georgetown University in Qatar’s first moot court competition, and served as junior faculty at Harvard Law School’s Institute for Global Law and Policy. Her book, Transitional Justice and the Prosecution of Political Leaders in the Arab Region: A Comparative study of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen (2017), challenges mainstream transitional justice practice and scholarship using original material from interviews she conducted between 2011 and 2017. @NohaAboueldahab
H.E. Amatalalim Alsoswa is a Yemeni leader and activist who served on the 565-member Yemen Political National Dialogue. She was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as UN Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Director of its Regional Bureau for Arab States, where she served from 2006 to 2012. In this post, Alsoswa led UNDP’s 18 offices in the Arab region in their efforts to develop national capacities for poverty reduction, democratic governance, sustainable development, crisis prevention and recovery, and women’s empowerment. She also provided regional thought leadership through the launching of two editions of the Arab Human Development Report, in 2006 and 2009. She served in various leadership positions in the public and private spheres in Yemen, including as Chairwoman of the Women’s National Committee and most recently Managing Director of The Executive Bureau for the Acceleration of Aid Absorption and Support for Policy Reform. @AlsoswaAmat
Zeina Azzam is ACW’s Publications Editor. Previously, she served as Executive Director of The Jerusalem Fund/Palestine Center, Senior Program Manager at Qatar Foundation International, and Director of Educational Outreach at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University. Azzam is co-editor, with Imad Harb, of The GCC Crisis at One Year: Stalemate Becomes New Reality (2018) and Trump and the Arab World: A First Year Assessment (2017). She has written articles for Al Jazeera English, The Hill, Jadaliyya, Middle East Eye, Common Dreams, Electronic Intifada, Huffington Post, Mondoweiss, and Social Education. Her poems have been published in a number of literary journals and edited volumes including Mizna, Sukoon Magazine, and Making Mirrors: Writing/Righting for and by Refugees. Azzam earned an MA in Arabic literature from Georgetown University and an MA in sociology from George Mason University. @zeina3azzam
Sultan Barakat is the Founding Director of the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute and a Professor in politics and post-war recovery studies at the University of York. Previously he served as Director of Research at the Brookings Doha Center and Founding Director of the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit at the University of York. Barakat has worked on issues of conflict management, humanitarian response, and post-conflict recovery and transition, including as a Senior Advisor and Consultant to the UN, World Bank, EU, DFID, ILO, IFRC and other governments and international organizations. He is a member of the joint Economic and Social Research Council and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) Commissioning Panel for research on poverty reduction. He was a founding Expert Panel Member of the Global Peace Index, where he served between 2008 and 2014. Barakat’s most recent book is Understanding Influence: The Use of Statebuilding Research in British Policy (2014). @BARAKAT_Sultan
Linda Bishai is the Director of Research, Evaluation, and Learning at the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative. In her previous position at the U.S. Institute of Peace, Bishai was responsible for peacebuilding programs in Sudan, South Sudan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and North Africa. She was an Assistant Professor of political science at Towson University and currently teaches international law and the use of force as an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. She has also taught at Brunei University, the London School of Economics, the University of Stockholm, and Georgetown University. Her research interests include identity politics, sovereignty, security, and states of emergency. In 2003-2004, Bishai served as a Supreme Court Fellow at the Federal Judicial Center. She holds a JD from Georgetown University Law Center and a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics. @LindaBishai
Daniel Brumberg is a Non-resident Senior Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC, Director of Democracy and Governance Studies at Georgetown University, and Senior Non-resident Fellow at the Project on Middle East Democracy. Previously, he served as a Special Adviser at the U.S. Institute of Peace and as consultant to the U.S. Department of State and Agency for International Development, focusing on human rights, security sector reform, and governance issues in the Arab world. He was also Visiting Professor of Kuwait-Gulf Studies at Sciences Po in Paris, Visiting Professor of Political Science at Emory University, Visiting Fellow at the Jimmy Carter Center, Lecturer at the University of Chicago, and he continues to serve as a faculty member for the St. Martin-Georgetown University Program in Public Policy in Buenos Aires. Brumberg has published articles in print and online journals including Journal of Democracy, Foreign Policy, and The Atlantic. His most recent book is Power and Political Change in Iran, co-edited with Farideh Farhi (2016). @derboland
Shadi Hamid is a Senior Fellow in the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World (2016), which was shortlisted for the 2017 Lionel Gelber Prize for best book on foreign affairs. He is also the co-editor of Rethinking Political Islam with William McCants and co-editor of Militants, Criminals, and Warlords: The Challenge of Local Governance in an Age of Disorder (2017). His first book, Temptations of Power: Islamists and Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East (2014), was named a Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2014. He served as Director of Research at the Brookings Doha Center until 2014. Hamid received his BS and MA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and his PhD in political science from Oxford University. @shadihamid
Imad K. Harb is the Director of Research and Analysis at Arab Center Washington DC (ACW). He is the Founder and Director of Quest for Middle East Analysis, a research and consulting firm, and served as Senior Analyst at the Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. Harb has taught at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, the University of Utah, and San Francisco State University. He earned his PhD in political science from the University of Utah. Harb is co-editor, with Zeina Azzam, of The GCC Crisis at One Year: Stalemate Becomes New Reality (2018) and Trump and the Arab World: A First Year Assessment (2017), and co-author, with John Bruni, of Domestic and Regional Challenges to US-Iran Relations (2015). @Harb3Imad
Khalil E. Jahshan, a Palestinian American political analyst and media commentator, serves as Executive Director of ACW. Previously, he was a Lecturer in International Studies and Languages at Pepperdine University and Executive Director of Pepperdine’s Seaver College Washington DC Internship Program. He also served as Executive Vice President of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and Director of its government affairs affiliate, National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA)-ADC. His leadership positions in Arab American organizations include Vice President of the American Committee on Jerusalem, President of the NAAA, and National Director of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates. He writes and is interviewed frequently on Arab affairs and US policy in the Middle East by American and Arab news media. @KhalilEJahshan
Marwan J. Kabalan is the Head of Policy Analysis at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, Qatar, where he also chairs the Gulf Studies Forum Committee. Previously, he served as Dean of the Faculty of International Relations and Diplomacy at Kalamoon University in Damascus, Syria. He taught International Political Theory at the University of Manchester and at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Damascus University. He was a member of the board of directors at the Damascus University Center for Strategic Studies and Research. Kabalan’s research examines the theory of international politics and foreign and security policy in the Middle East. He is a co-editor of Turkey-Syria Relations: Between Enmity and Amity (2013) and Syrian Foreign Policy and the United States, From Bush to Obama (2009). @Marwan_Kabalan.
Mehran Kamrava is a Professor and Director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He is the author of a number of journal articles and books, including Inside the Arab State (2018); The Impossibility of Palestine: History, Geography, and the Road Ahead (2016); Qatar: Small State, Big Politics (2015); The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War, 3rd ed.; and Iran’s Intellectual Revolution (2008). His edited books include Fragile Politics: Weak States in the Greater Middle East (2016); Beyond the Arab Spring: The Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle East (2015); The Political Economy of the Persian Gulf (2012); The Nuclear Question in the Middle East (2012); and The International Politics of the Persian Gulf (2011). @MehranKamrava
Tamara Kharroub is the Assistant Executive Director and Senior Middle East Fellow at ACW. Her research explores issues of democratization and transitions, violent extremism and Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs, US policy in the Middle East and toward Palestine/Israel, with emphasis on democracy and human rights, identity and conflicts, the role of media and communication technology in political participation, and gender issues. She holds a PhD from Indiana University Bloomington and an MA from the University of Westminster and is the recipient of several awards and scholarships including the Fulbright. @tamarakharroub1
Rami G. Khouri is an internationally syndicated political columnist at Agence Global, a book author, and Professor of Journalism, Journalist-in-Residence, and Senior Public Policy Fellow at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He also serves as a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and Editor at large and former Executive Editor of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper. Khouri teaches at AUB and Northeastern University and has been a Fellow and Visiting Scholar at a dozen US universities. He recently completed a four-year term on the International Advisory Council of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Khouri was Editor-in-Chief of the Jordan Times for seven years and general manager of Al Kutba Publishers in Amman for 18 years. He was awarded the Pax Christi International Peace Prize for 2006. He has BA and MSc degrees in political science and mass communications, respectively, from Syracuse University. @RamiKhouri
Bessma Momani is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo and the Balsille School of International Affairs and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance and Innovation. She was also a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University, a 2015 Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, and a Fulbright Scholar. She has authored and co-edited over eight books and over 65 scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters examining the IMF, the World Bank, petrodollars, the Middle East, and Arab youth. Momani is a current recipient of a research grant funded by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to study IMF and World Bank cooperation. She was the recipient of two previous SSHRC grants on the reform of the IMF executive board and on Middle East urbanization. Momani is a regular contributor to national and international media. @b_momani
Elly Rostoum is a political scientist and public policy practitioner with more than a decade of experience in both the private and governmental sectors. She has advised policy-makers and decision-makers at the White House, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the United Nations. Rostoum most recently served as a National Security Council staffer at the White House, covering the Middle East portfolio. She specializes in public diplomacy, foreign policy, and national security issues, and particularly enjoys working on issues of dignity, fragility, and resilience in at-risk and/or post-conflict contexts. Rostoum is fluent in Arabic and French and holds degrees from Harvard University, Stanford University, and Bates College. @EllyRostoum
Sarah Leah Whitson is Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, where she oversees the work of the division in 19 countries with staff located in 10 countries. She has led dozens of advocacy and investigative missions throughout the region, focusing on issues of armed conflict, accountability, legal reform, migrant workers, and political rights. Whitson has published widely on human rights issues in the Middle East in international and regional media, including The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Los Angeles Times, and CNN. She appears regularly on Al Jazeera, BBC, NPR, and CNN. Before joining Human Rights, Watch, Whitson worked in New York for Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and speaks Armenian and Arabic. @sarahleah1
