Academic biography

Professor Robert Mason is an Associate Professor at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi. He is also an Associate with NATO Watch and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. His previous senior appointments include Director of the Middle East Studies Center at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Gulf Research Center.

At AUC, Professor Mason held formal responsibility for academic and professional staff, budgets, strategy, programme and curriculum development, quality assurance, and accreditation. He worked across the university as Chair of a center advisory board, a member of multiple academic advisory boards, and the Graduate Affairs Council, contributing to institution-wide delivery of teaching and learning. His leadership and management expertise is supported by executive education from the Sauder School of Business (University of British Columbia), the University of California, Riverside, and the Harvard Kennedy School.

Professor Mason’s work on AI, sovereignty, and diplomacy informs his approach to artificial intelligence as a governance challenge in higher education, with a focus on curriculum enhancement, assessment integrity, and institutional policy. He also holds a Higher Education Teaching in the Age of AI certificate from Stellenbosch University.

His research focuses on Middle East politics and international relations, with particular emphasis on the Gulf states, alongside scholarship on teaching and learning. He has advised governments and institutions including the UK FCDO, European Union, Dutch Ministry of Defence, and partners in Asia and the Middle East. He has secured European Commission, ERASMUS+, and Euromesco funding and has held fellowships at Oxford, LSE, and the United Nations University.

A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Society of Arts, as well as being an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Professor Mason serves on international scholarly boards and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of World Affairs.