About me

I am Professor of International Politics at Lancaster University and my work falls at the intersection of Middle East Studies, International Relations and (International) Political Theory. I am particularly interested in sovereignty and its discontents, sectarianism, space, and nomos, along with the empirical manifestations of these issues. I am Director of SEPAD, funded by Carnegie Corporation and The Henry Luce Foundation.

Broadly speaking I am interested in the following areas

  • Sovereignty
  • Saudi-Iranian relations
  • Sectarianism
  • De-sectarianization
  • Nomos
  • Order
  • The Arab Uprisings
  • Religion and politics
  • Regime-society relations
  • International Political Theory and its application to the Middle East

My research interests are situated at the interplay of sectarianism, sovereignty and regional politics. I have published work that looks at these themes (collectively and individually) in leading Middle East studies and IR journals.

My two most recent monographs looked at the interplay of these issues. The most recent, The Struggle for Supremacy in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and Iran was published by Cambridge University Press in 2023. The second, Houses built on sand: Violence, sectarianism and revolution in the Middle East was published by Manchester University Press in 2020 and was listed by Choice as an academic book of the year. An open access version is here.

I am currently working on a book for Yale University Press on sectarianism in the Middle East.

In 2012 I was offered a Research Fellowship with the Foreign Policy Centre, a London based think tank and I continue to engage with the FPC. At Lancaster I teach on a range of courses, including: Introduction to Peace Studies, Exploring the Persian Gulf, Politics and International Relations in the Contemporary World, and The Foreign Policies of Contending Powers. I have also taught on a MA Research Methods course.

A great deal of my time at Lancaster has been spent supervising PhD students, which is a particularly enjoyable part of the job. I have supervised theses in areas including: Political Islam; Sectarianism; Bahraini politics; Saudi-Iranian relations; Critical Geopolitics; Settler groups; Pakistan and the English School; Iranian Foreign Policy; Iranian Nationalism; Kurdish nationalism; Palestinians in East Jerusalem; the work of Giorgio Agamben; and a number of other areas. I am interested in supervising PhD students in areas related to my research interests.

In 2016-17 I served as academic advisor to the House of Lords International Relations Committee on their inquiry into British relations with the Middle East. You can see the report here. I have given talks to a range of political organisations including the UN, the European Parliament, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office. I have given lectures at a range of academic institutions including at Harvard University, Oxford University, George Mason University, GeorgeTown University Doha, the University of St Andrews, the University of Aarhus, King’s College London, the University of Leeds, An Najah University, The People’s College (Nanded, Maharastra, India) amongst many others.

I regularly comment on international news stories for outlets including: BBC, Sky, CNN, CNBC, Al Jazeera, France 24, Deutsche Welle, ITV, TRT, LBC, ABC, CBC, Newstalk ZB, Al Arabiyyah, i24, Russia Today and a number of others. I have also written a range of pieces for international news platforms which are available to view on the other publications page.

I am an avid Arsenal fan and try to get to games as often as I can. I am a keen musician and have played gigs across the country.