Born and educated in Great Britain to an English mother and a Pathan father Imran is an ethnic Yusuf Zai Pathan.  He has spent much time from his earliest childhood to date in the land of his ancestors and continues to maintain a particular and lifelong interest in affairs related to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Imran [...]

Formerly an officer in the British Army, Alex has operational experience in Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Iraq. Prior to joining the Crisis Project, Alex served in the MND(SE) as an Information Operations staff officer.  In Basra he was responsible for advising on divisional level KLE, monitoring atmospherics within the city and advising on the communications [...]

Richard Barrett is a former British diplomat and intelligence officer who heads the Al-Qaida/Taliban Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team at the United Nations 1267 Security Council Committee. He is a global expert on terrorism and has held positions in the British Security Service (MI5) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Mr. Barrett also served as [...]

Armand has a diploma from Sciences-Po (France) and a master’s degree in Middle East Politics from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London). He has been focusing on International Relations and Political Sciences applied to the Middle East and North Africa, in particular the Syrian economy and the Syrian uprising. He is [...]

Abd Al-Aziz was recently awarded an MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies having focussed on Diplomacy, International Security, and Global Energy and Climate Policy. Coming from a diverse Middle Eastern background, specifically Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, he is fluent in Arabic and English and with a working knowledge of [...]

Nick Jaques was recently awarded a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford University. Nick is focusing on questions of democratisation within the Middle East North Africa (MENA) area of interest, specifically in the region’s monarchies and in Egypt. He has previously worked with several think tanks.

Raymond Abou Mansour is a political science undergraduate at University College London specialising in the Levant and the former Soviet Union. With a core expertise centring on energy geopolitics and the legal dimension of the Arab-Israeli conflict he is currently researching the incorporation of game-theoretic models in international law and the use of psychological vectors [...]

Michael Everard has degrees in Theology and International Relations. He is interested in religion and politics in the Middle East and writes on Iranian and Syrian contemporary history for the Transnational Crisis Project. He worked in British politics before joining the Crisis Project.

Joanna Vickers studied History at Cambridge University and has recently completed an MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from SOAS, University of London. She writes and researches Egypt and the Maghreb for Transnational Crisis Project. She specialises in political Islam, as well as having a particular interest in gender issues within the region. She has studied Arabic for several years, and [...]

Rabyah Khan has a degree in Arabic and International Relations and is working towards a second degree in Middle East Politics. She has lived and studied in Syria and has travelled the Levant as well as Turkey and Morocco extensively. Specialising in the politics of the Levant, she writes on this and monitors ongoing developments [...]

Luke Errington-Barnes has an MA in Politics and International Relations, focusing chiefly on international security, both practical and theoretical. He has expertise in human rights, democratisation and international relations theory as well as religion and conflict, and has spent a number of years living in the Middle East. Luke has worked in social policy, public [...]

Alexander Naffah is a current student of Political Science at University College London. He spent a period studying at Damascus University and primarily writes on Syrian and Lebanese politics for the Transnational Crisis Project. He is a French and Levantine Arabic speaker, and previously worked as a political research consultant with particular reference to British, [...]