WASHINGTON, August 21, 2023 – The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington is pleased to announce that Yerevan Saeed will now serve as a visiting scholar.

Saeed first joined AGSIW in 2016 as a research associate. He is a former lecturer at the University of Kurdistan Hewler, TEDx speaker, and political analyst who researches and writes on security, political, and energy issues in the Middle East, focusing on Iraq, Turkey, Iran, the Gulf, and the Levant. He has served as White House correspondent for the Kurdish Rudaw TV, and his work has been published in the Washington Institute’s Fikra Forum, the Diplomatic Courier, The New York Times, the London-based Majalla magazine, Rudaw, Global Politician, and several Kurdish newspapers. In addition, he has been interviewed by Voice of America, NPR, CNN, Voice of Russia, and Kurdish television programs and newspapers. From 2009-13, Saeed worked with Stratfor; additionally, he worked for several media outlets, including The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, BBC, and The Guardian, as a journalist and translator in Iraq from 2003-07. Saeed holds a bachelor’s degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, with a focus on Middle East studies and international negotiation and conflict resolution. He received his PhD from the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University.

Saeed commented, “I am immensely grateful and excited to begin my new position as a visiting scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. After five years of dedicated work, it has been a true honor to collaborate with exceptional scholars and ambassadors who have propelled this institution to achieve global recognition in such a short span of time. I am eagerly looking forward to this new chapter and the opportunity to contribute further to the institute’s growth and impact.”

AGSIW Executive Vice President William Roebuck said, “We are delighted to welcome Yerevan as a visiting scholar at AGSIW for the upcoming academic year. Yerevan brings a wealth of impressive regional and professional experience to this assignment. He has demonstrated with his impressive written contributions for us and a range of other media and scholarly outlets, and with his participation in a range of public programs, that he is ready for this opportunity, and we are excited to bring him on board in this new capacity.”

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The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (AGSIW) is an independent, nonprofit institution dedicated to highlighting the importance of the relationship between the United States and the Gulf region through free and open exchange of multiple points of view on issues that concern the Gulf.

AGSIW strives to support this goal by:

• Providing expert analysis and thoughtful debate on the economic, energy, environmental, security, social, cultural, and political dimensions of the Gulf Arab states as well as their relations with the United States and other countries.
• Informing a global audience of policymakers, legislators, businesspeople, academics, media, youth, and others as the foundation for strategic decisions regarding this important region.
• Employing multiple avenues to inform public understanding of the importance of the relationship between the United States and the Gulf Arab states.
• Encouraging strong academic coverage by developing scholars who concentrate on the study of the region.