Michael Tanchum teaches international relations of the Middle East and North Africa at the University of Navarra, Spain and is a senior associate fellow at the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy. He conducts research and analysis on strategic affairs in the Mediterranean and Middle East regions, with special interests in geopolitics, energy, maritime/naval affairs and security issues in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden corridor, and the Gulf. Primarily focused on the rivalries among the Saudi Arabia-United Arab Emirates-Egypt, Turkey-Qatar, and Iran-led blocs, along with the roles of Russia and China, Tanchum assesses the strategic implications of newly emerging patterns of energy and commercial connectivity on the evolving security architectures of the Maghreb, the Mediterranean region, and the greater Middle East. Within this strategic framework and combined with his training in Islamic studies, he also examines the impacts of various Islamic political movements on current conflicts in the region. Tanchum holds a PhD from Harvard University and was a fellow at Harvard’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and its Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He is also a non-resident affiliated scholar at the Centre for Strategic Studies at Başkent University in Ankara, Turkey. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and several policy journals.