Dr Robert Mason is a Middle East expert, and an award-winning researcher on Gulf State foreign policies and the international relations of the Middle East. Robert is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington and at the Gulf Research Center in Jeddah.
He spent three years as Associate Professor and Director of the Middle East Studies Center at The American University in Cairo where he was responsible for teaching, research and outreach, including as co-host of a Korea – Middle East Cooperation Forum in Seoul and a high-level EU – Middle East dialogue in Cairo.
Robert is the author or editor of nine books, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates: Foreign Policy and Strategic Alliances in an Uncertain World and the textbook New Perspectives on Middle East Politics: Economy, Society and International Relations. His articles have been published in Third World Quarterly, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Middle East Journal, and Middle East Policy. He edits the ‘Gulf States in International Affairs’ book series.
He has lived and worked in Egypt for a decade and has conducted extensive fieldwork, with projects funded by the EU, LSE Middle East Centre, and AUC, among others. Robert has been a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics, and the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. He received his BA in International Relations and Politics from the University of Westminster, and his PhD from the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.
Robert is a regular commentator for national and global publications, and frequently presents his research at conferences and workshops in the UK and internationally.
Dr Robert Mason FRSA FHEA 