Gerd Nonneman

Gerd Nonneman is Dean of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University's campus in Qatar (SFS-Qatar, or SFS-Q), since September 2011. Prior to this appointment, he held the Al-Qasimi Chair in Gulf Studies, and a Chair in International Relations and Middle East Politics, at the University of Exeter. He is a former Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS) and of the Centre for Gulf Studies (CGS) at that university. He is also a former Executive Director of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES).

Early life

Born in Flanders (Temse, 1959) and educated at Ghent University, Belgium in Oriental Philology (Arabic) and, at postgraduate level, in Development Studies, Professor Nonneman subsequently worked in the commercial sector in Iraq for a number of years during the 1980s, before returning to academia and further studies - including a doctorate in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter.

Academia

After teaching Middle East politics and political economy at Manchester and Exeter Universities, and a spell as Visiting Professor at the International University of Japan, he taught International Relations and Middle East Politics at Lancaster University from 1993 to 2007, at which point he returned to Exeter until his appointment as Dean of Georgetown University's SFS-Qatar in 2011.

He was a member of the UK's 2001 National Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) panel on Middle Eastern Studies, and served as Executive Director of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) between 1998 and 2002. He was Associate Fellow of the Middle East Programme at Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs) until 2012.

Prof. Nonneman is associate editor of the Journal of Arabian Studies (Routledge), edited by the University of Exeter's Centre for Gulf Studies in association with Georgetown University's SFS-Q

Other roles

He has acted as a consultant to or worked with a range of companies, national and international official institutions including the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, foreign ministries in Europe and the Middle East, the European Commission, and various NGOs - ranging from Amnesty International to the Bertelsmann Foundation. He has also been a regular media commentator on Middle Eastern and Gulf affairs, and has frequently acted as expert witness on human rights cases relating to the Middle East.

Notable works

works include: (see academia.edu listing)

• Analyzing Middle Eastern Foreign Policies, and the relationship with Europe (Routledge, 2005)
• Saudi Arabia in the Balance: Political Economy, Society, Foreign Affairs (New York University Press, 2006 / Hurst & Co, 2005) (co-editor & contributor, with Paul Aarts)
• ‘Europe, the US, and the Gulf after the Cold War’, in Viktor Mauer & Daniel Möckli (eds.), European-American Relations and the Middle East: From Suez to Iraq (Routledge, 2010);
• ‘“Terrorism” and Political Violence in the Middle East and North Africa: Drivers and Limitations‘, in Asaf Siniver (ed.), International Terrorism Post-9/11: Comparative Dynamics and Responses (Routledge, 2010), pp. 13–36;
• ‘Political Reform in the Gulf Monarchies: From Liberalisation to Democratisation? A Comparative Perspective’, in A. Ehteshami & S. Wright (eds.), Reform in the Middle East Oil Monarchies (Ithaca Press, 2008), pp. 3–45;
• ‘EU-GGC Relations: Dynamics, Perspectives and the Issue of Political Reform’, Journal of Social Affairs [AUS, Sharjah], Vol. 23, No. 92, Winter 2006, pp. 13–33;
• EU-GCC Relations: Dynamics, Patterns and Perspectives, Gulf Papers Series (Dubai: Gulf Research Center, 2006)

Notable Earlier Works

• Muslim Communities in the New Europe (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1996).
• Het Midden-Oosten Hertekend [The Middle East Redrawn] (Brussels: VUB Press (Free University of Brussels Press), 1996).
• Political and Economic Liberalization: dynamics and linkages in comparative perspective (Boulder, Col.: Lynne Rienner, 1996).
• The Middle East and Europe: The Search for Stability and Integration (London: Federal Trust for Education and Research, 1993)
• War and Peace in the Gulf: domestic politics and regional relations into the 1990s (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1991) (with Anoushiravan Ehteshami).
• Development, Administration and Aid in the Middle East (London: Routledge, 1988).
• Iraq, the Gulf States & the War: A changing relationship, 1980-1986 and beyond (London: Ithaca Press, 1986).