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Past Event
Seminar

Unity or Discord in the Gulf? The Gulf States' Divergent Foreign Policies and their Implications on Regional Security

Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

The Saudi & GCC Security Project will host a seminar with Dr. Jamal Abdullah, Senior Researcher at TRT World Research Centre, Instanbul, Turkey, on Monday, February 12th from 2:00-3:00pm in the Belfer Center Library (L369). Rolf Mowatt-Larssen will moderate.

Refreshments will be served and Harvard ID's checked at the door. 

Date: Time: - Location: Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369
GCC leaders pose during the Arabian Gulf countries summit in Manama, Bahrain

About

On 5 June 2017, three GCC countries, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain, cut their ties with Qatar. This seminar will address the undeclared reasons underlying the current Gulf crisis, the most important of which is the build-up of divergent foreign policies regarding the strategic interests and regional vision of the states that are party to the crisis. Dr. Abdullah will also focus on the security implications for the Gulf region of this unprecedented event, as well as the scenarios that we could expect to resolve this crisis.

Biography

Dr. Jamal Abdullah is currently a Senior Researcher at TRT WORLD Research Centre in Istanbul. He is also a Senior Member ‘Academic Visitor’ since October 2016 at the Middle East Centre, Saint Antony’s College - University of Oxford in the UK. Before joining the University of Oxford, he worked as Researcher and Head of the Gulf Studies Unit at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, part of Al Jazeera Media Network in Doha- Qatar (2011 - 2016).

Jamal served as a Visiting Lecturer at NATO Defense College (NDC), in Rome- Italy (2012-2015), and a Visiting Lecturer at the Diplomatic Institute- Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Doha- Qatar (2014- 2016). Jamal had been trained at the UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research) in Geneva in 2006 and at the Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United Nations Office in Geneva in 2005. He worked in the Public Relations department at the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Paris (2009-2010). He is a member of the Arab Foresight Group, created in 2014 by the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris (EUISS).

Jamal was a Visiting Researcher at the Middle East Centre, LSE (London School of Economics) in the UK in November 2015, and a Visiting Fellow at the CIRMENA (Centre for International Relations of the MENA), University of Cambridge, UK in September 2014.

Jamal holds a PhD in International Relations Law from University of Avignon in France (2011), and a Master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from Jean Moulin University (Lyon 3) in France (2008). He holds also two more Master’s degrees in Political Science (2005) and Political Sociology (2007) from University of Lumière (Lyon 2) and Science Po Lyon in France.

He authored the book Qatar’s Foreign Policy 1995 – 2013: Leverages and Strategies (published in May 2014), and he co-edited a second book on The Gulf in a Changing Strategic Context (published in January 2014). Under his guidance and supervision, Jamal launched a third book on The March of the Gulf Cooperation: Current Challenges and Possible Scenarios, (published in January 2015). Jamal has published in both Arabic and English dozens of research papers, analysis and books chapters during the last decade and he participated in several international conferences. He also has numerous media contributions in Arabic, English and French.