Robert Mason

Robert Mason FHEA is an associate professor and director of the Middle East Studies Center at The American University in Cairo. His research focus is on the international relations of the Middle East, with an emphasis on the Gulf states - particularly Saudi Arabia and Iran - U.S., Russian, U.K., the European Union, and Chinese foreign policy, Islam and the state, security and development studies - including Afghanistan - Egypt, Turkey, the UAE and sub-Sahara Africa.

Mason has been awarded fellowships with the Centre for International Studies at the LSE, King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, and the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford. He has also been a visiting scholar at the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at New York University, the Centre d'etudes de recherche internationales at Science Po in Paris, and was a researcher with the Center for Future Security Strategies at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C.

Robert Mason is the author or editor of five books: Reassessing Order and Disorder in the Middle East: Regional Imbalance or Disintegration (2017), Egypt and the Gulf: A Renewed Regional Policy Alliance (2017), Muslim Minority - State Relations: Violence, Integration and Policy (2016), The International Politics of the Arab Spring: Popular Unrest and Foreign Policy (2014), Foreign Policy in Iran and Saudi Arabia: Economics and Diplomacy in the Middle East (2014). His articles have appeared in a range of publications, including: Middle East Journal, Middle East Policy, Harvard Journal of Middle East Politics and Policy, Third World Quarterly, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, German Journal for Politics, Economics and Culture of the Middle East (ORIENT), Journal of Central Asian and Caucasian Studies, and the Maghreb Review. His op-eds have appeared in OpenDemocracy, The National, Fair Observer, The Hill, Iran Review, Financial Times, The Diplomat, RUSI Newsbrief, and the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. His research has been supported by AUC, British Institute of Persian Studies, HRH Prince Alwaleed Al Saud scholarship, and the LSE Middle East Centre.  

Robert Mason has provided commentary to Radio France International, Voice of Russia, and has been interviewed by Girne University, Cyprus. He has delivered presentations for government and university audiences in the Middle East, the United States and Europe, and is an associate member of Chatham House. He holds a PhD in Middle East Politics from the University of Exeter, U.K..