WASHINGTON, May 17, 2021 – The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington is pleased to announce that Robert Mogielnicki will now serve as a senior resident scholar.
Mogielnicki first joined AGSIW in 2018 as a non-resident fellow and later as a resident scholar. He leads AGSIW’s Next Gen Gulf series examining technology trends in Gulf Arab states. An expert in the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa, Mogielnicki previously served as a human resource development consultant for an Oxford-based research consultancy that operated across the Gulf region. Prior to his consulting career, he worked in journalism, covering political and economic developments in post-revolutionary Egypt and Tunisia.
His book, A Political Economy of Free Zones in Gulf Arab States, was published by Palgrave Macmillan’s international political economy series in April. Mogielnicki has authored several book chapters on the politics and economics of Gulf Arab states. His work and commentary on the region have appeared in Foreign Policy, Bloomberg, Axios, Forbes, Reuters, Nature, Financial Times, The Banker, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Vox, Los Angeles Times, S&P Global, and the Nikkei Asian Review, among other prominent outlets. Mogielnicki received his DPhil from the University of Oxford’s Magdalen College, where he conducted research in conjunction with the Oriental Institute and Middle East Centre. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait, his dissertation examines the political economy of free zones in Gulf Arab countries.
Ambassador William Roebuck, AGSIW executive vice president, said: “We’re delighted to name Robert as a senior resident scholar at AGSIW. This promotion is an acknowledgement of the impressive scholarship and analysis he has produced for the institute over the past several years. From assessing the prospects for economic reforms in Saudi Arabia and the jockeying for expatriate talent among Gulf Arab countries to tackling the latest trends in technology for our Next Gen Gulf series, Robert’s work on political economy has sparkled with insight and cutting-edge choice of subjects. His work will continue to play a vital role in AGSIW’s efforts to inform policy, business, and other key audiences and serve as a foundation for strategic decisions regarding the Gulf.”
Mogielnicki specializes in the intersection of politics and economics across Gulf Arab states. He is particularly interested in how these geostrategic states engage in processes of economic transformation through trade and investment policies, labor market interventions, economic diversification, and technological innovation.
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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.
