WASHINGTON, September 8, 2020 – The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington is pleased to announce that Robert Mason has joined the institute as a non-resident fellow.
Mason is a fellow with the Sectarianism, Proxies and De-sectarianisation project at Lancaster University. Previously, he was an associate professor and director of the Middle East Studies Center at the American University in Cairo. Mason was also a visiting scholar in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, a visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford, and a visiting research fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. He specializes in Gulf politics and the international relations of the Middle East.
Mason has been involved in policy initiatives ranging from co-hosting the 14th Korea-Middle East Cooperation Forum in Seoul in November 2017 to convening a European Union-Middle East policy roundtable event in Cairo in May 2019. He has engaged in various policy-related events and presented his research at leading academic institutions. He is a regular commentator on regional and international affairs. His latest books include New Perspectives on Middle East Politics: Economy, Society and International Relations (Cairo: AUC Press, 2021), Reassessing Order and Disorder in the Middle East: Regional Imbalance or Disintegration? (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017), and Egypt and the Gulf: A Renewed Regional Policy Alliance (Berlin: Gerlach Press, 2016). He holds a PhD in Middle East politics from the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter.
Mason commented, “AGSIW has been at the forefront of analysis and commentary on Gulf Arab affairs since its inception. I am honored to be joining as a non-resident fellow and look forward to contributing during a period of rapid change in the region and internationally.”
AGSIW Executive Vice President Stephen A. Seche said, “AGSIW is delighted to welcome Robert Mason to the ranks of its non-resident fellows, and we look forward to fruitful collaboration with him in the months and years to come. We are particularly excited about the range of experience that Robert brings with him, from his work on the internal dynamics of the Gulf to initiatives highlighting the region’s ties to East Asia and Europe.”
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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.
