Influencing Public and Policy Perspectives towards the Middle East, and Gulf Security in Particular
Period: 2022 –
1. Summary of the impact
Research by Associate Professor Robert Mason has influenced public debates and policymaking internationally. He has informed thinking on policy responses in the Middle East, feeding directly and indirectly into foreign policy.
2. Underpinning the research
Mason’s published work in this area includes work on a) nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East (WMDFZME), b) alliance patterns, c) arms and military-industrial complexes and related issues linked to state autonomy and power (including relevant and emerging inter-regional linkages), d) violent non-state actors, and e) US policy towards Iran. Mason joined the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in 2025. His work on Gulf State foreign and security policies spans more than 15 years.
a) Some of his latest research concerns nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East. He published a policy orientated article titled ‘Negotiating the Impossible? A Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East’ in the Washington DC-based Middle East Policy [R1]. Itproposes a WMDFZME based onfour key components: ‘an American security guarantee for Israel in return for its eventual transition away from nuclear arms; a new US-led nuclear deal with Iran as a platform for further diplomacy; Washington’s upholding the nonproliferation “gold standard” as a pillar of regional policy; and the removal of US nuclear weapons from Turkey’.The general findings were also discussed in an op-ed in the National Interest [R2].
b) Mason’s work on alliance patterns has also contributed to his expertise and impact on Gulf security. He has conducted substantive research on Saudi Arabia and Iran [ ] which proposed a policy of ‘active engagement’ and diplomacy to end decades of failed containment policies, as well as more recent work on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates [ ] that underscored these GCC states’ increasing international ties linked to their respective Visions strategies. These works have served as a basis for Mason’s continued thinking about regional security, whether linked to the Abraham Accords [R5], Israel’s strikes against Doha in 2025 [R6] or NATO and the Middle East [R7].
c) Mason’s work on arms, GCC state military-industrial capacity, and state power, has been published with a variety of outlets across multiple countries. He contributed a report on military ecosystems in 2024 to PRIMSE, an initiative based in France and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York [R8]. He co-edited a special issue of Defence & Security Analysis in 2025 on GCC state military-industrial complexes [R9]. In ‘From ‘Relative Autonomy’ to ‘Relational Autonomy’? A Reappraisal of GCC State-Building and Foreign Policy’ in the Journal of Arabian Studies [R10] he wrote more broadly on changes to GCC state power and autonomy, and in ‘The Role of Sovereign Wealth Funds in the Defence Sectors of Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates’ for Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung [R11] he wrote more specifically on the role of Sovereign Wealth Funds in military-industrial complexes.
d) InThe Gulf States and the Horn of Africa for Manchester University Press, Mason wrote about Hezbollah in Africa [R12] and has followed this up with an op-ed on the Houthis and Al Shabaab for the Gulf International Forum which argues that the Israeli and US strikes against Iran have led to a reformulation and metamorphosis of what remains of the ‘resistance axis’ [R13]. Increasingly, Mason studies the inter-regional ties of the GCC states, with Latin America for example in ‘Small State Adaptation: The Case of the United Arab Emirates and South America’, Global Policy, and the multidimensional aspects (including security ties) of them [R14].
e) Mason sustains an interest in US foreign policy generally and specifically towards the Mideast. He contributed to a Middle East Council report in 2025 with a chapter on the US and the Mediterranean [R15], and wrote about President Trump’s policy of ‘maximum pressure’ against Iran for the German Journal for Politics, Economics and Culture of the Middle East in 2025 [R16].
3. References to the research
R1. R. Mason, “Negotiating the Impossible? A Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East”, Middle East Policy, 32(1), Spring 2025, pp. 104-117. DOI: 10.1111/mepo.12803
R2. R Mason, “Could the Gaza War Revitalize Nuclear Non-Proliferation in the Middle East?”, The National Interest, 12 September 2024, https://nationalinterest.org/feature/could-gaza-war-revitalize-nuclear-non-proliferation-middle-east-212728
R3. R Mason, Foreign Policy in Iran and Saudi Arabia: Economics and Diplomacy in the Middle East. London: I. B. Tauris, 2014, pp. 288, (a second edition of this volume was published in 2022).
R4. R Mason, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates: Foreign Policy and Strategic Alliances in an Uncertain World. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2023. ‘’Anyone needing succinct, accessible introductions to the internal and external politics of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will find this book most useful.’ Fred H. Lawson, The Middle East Journal, Volume 77, pp. 3-4.
R5. R Mason, G. Burton and B. Keynoush, The States of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Abraham Accords: National Security, Regional Order, and Popular Representation. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2024, pp. 314.
R6. R Mason and U Karim, “Gulf Security Just Became More Complicated – Oped”, Eurasia Review, 6 October 2025, https://www.eurasiareview.com/06102025-gulf-security-just-became-more-complicated-oped/
R7. R Mason and S. Suri, “NATO’s Emerging Strategic Choices Lie in the Indo-Pacific and Middle East”, NATO Watch, 7 August 2025, https://natowatch.org/default/2025/natos-emerging-strategic-choices-lie-indo-pacific-and-middle-east
R8. R Mason, “Egypt and the United Arab Emirates: Roots and Growth of an Emerging Arab Military Ecosystem,” PRISME, Spring 2024, https://prismeinitiative.org/blog/egypt-uae-emerging-arab-military-ecosystem-robert-mason/
R9. R Mason, A Bakir, and A Rossiter, Special Issue: “Navigating Changing Currents: Diversification of Defence and Security in the Gulf Region”, Defence & Security Analysis, 2025.
R10. R Mason,“From ‘Relative Autonomy’ to ‘Relational Autonomy’? A Reappraisal of GCC State-Building and Foreign Policy,” Journal of Arabian Studies. May 2025, pp. 1-20. DOI: 10.1080/21534764.2025.2481653
R11. R Mason, “The Role of Sovereign Wealth Funds in the Defence Sectors of Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates”, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS)
R12 R Mason and S Mabon (eds.), The Gulf States and the Horn of Africa. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022, pp. 320.
R13 R Mason, “The Splintering of the Resistance Axis,” Gulf International Forum, 25 June 2025, https://gulfif.org/the-splintering-of-the-axis-of-resistance/
R14. R Mason and P Rebello, “Small State Adaptation: The Case of the United Arab Emirates and South America,” Global Policy, 15(4), September 2024, pp. 593-603. DOI: 10.1111/1758-5899.13357
R15. R Mason, ‘The United States of America and Eastern Mediterranean Security”, in Galip Dalay and Yahia Zoubir (eds.), The Future of the Mediterranean (Dis)Order, Doha: Middle East Council, 2025, https://mecouncil.org/publication_chapters/the-united-states-of-america-and-eastern-mediterranean-security/
R16. R Mason, “President Trump’s Return to “Maximum Pressure” Against Iran”, German Journal for Politics, Economics and Culture of the Middle East (Orient), 2025, pp. 6-11.
4. Details of the impact
Mason’s work with various diplomats, officials and businesspeople draws on specific outputs listed above (R1-16) as well as his generally academic standing and international reputation.
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
Dr Robert Mason FRSA FHEA 