WASHINGTON, November 11, 2020 – The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington is pleased to announce that Anna L. Jacobs has joined the institute as a non-resident fellow.
Anna L. Jacobs is a Doha-based political scientist focusing on foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa. She is a contributor to the North Africa Policy Initiative and specializes in the politics of North Africa, global and regional power competition, U.S.-China relations, and U.S. foreign policy. Previously, she was the senior research assistant at the Brookings Doha Center, where she managed the center’s research and publications. Her own work focused on Chinese and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa as well as governance and political economy in the Maghreb countries.
Prior to moving to Doha, she was the academic director and main lecturer in journalism and new media for SIT Study Abroad in Morocco, where she supported American and Moroccan university students conducting research and reporting on Moroccan politics, culture, and society. She was also an adjunct professor at the Ecole de Gouvernance et d’Economie in Rabat, where she taught courses on media and political economy in the Middle East. She has also worked as a political risk consultant and editor. Her work has been published by the Brookings Institution, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera English, The National Interest, Jadaliyya, Muftah Magazine, and other outlets. She is a contributor to the edited volume The European Union and North Africa: Prospects and Challenges (Brookings Institution Press, 2019) as well as a forthcoming volume on China-North Africa relations. She received a Master of Philosophy in modern Middle Eastern studies from Oxford University and holds a Bachelor of Arts in government, foreign affairs, and French from the University of Virginia.
Jacobs commented, “I am thrilled to be joining AGSIW as a non-resident fellow at a pivotal moment for U.S.-Middle East relations. Gulf Arab state affairs and foreign policies impact the entire region more than ever, and I am honored to contribute foreign policy research and analysis during this period of rapid change.”
AGSIW Executive Vice President Stephen A. Seche said, “Anna Jacobs brings a rich background in Gulf affairs, and a proven ability to make complicated regional dynamics accessible to a broad readership, and we’re very pleased to welcome her as a non-resident fellow. She’s already contributed cogent analysis of the eastern Mediterranean and the Maghreb, and we look forward to continued, close collaboration.”
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The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (AGSIW), launched in 2015, is an independent, nonprofit institution dedicated to providing expert research and analysis of the social, economic, and political dimensions of the Gulf Arab states and key neighboring countries and how they affect domestic and foreign policy. AGSIW focuses on issues ranging from politics and security to economics, trade, and business; from social dynamics to civil society and culture. Through programs, publications, and scholarly exchanges the institute seeks to encourage thoughtful debate and inform the U.S. foreign-policy, business, and academic communities regarding this critical geostrategic region.
