Mohammed Ayoob is University Distinguished Professor of International Relations, Michigan State University. A specialist on conflict and security in the Third World, he has held appointments at the Australian National University and Jawaharlal Nehru University and visiting appointments at Columbia, Princeton, Oxford and Bilkent Universities. His books include The Politics of Islamic Reassertion, The Many Faces of Political Islam, and Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia: Wahhabism and the State.
Patrick Seale is a leading writer on the Middle East, and the author of The Struggle for Syria; also, Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East; and Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire. He read Middle East history at St Antony’s College, Oxford and studied Arabic at the Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies in Lebanon. He has been honored by Oxford University with a doctorate (D. Litt) and is a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony’s College. His journalistic experience includes six years with Reuters, and over twelve with The Observer. He has covered the Middle East, Africa and India.
Avi Shlaim is a Fellow of St Antony's College and a Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford. He was the Alastair Buchan Reader in International Relations from 1987 to 1996. He was the Director of Graduate Studies in International Relations in 1993-1995 and 1998-2001. In 2006 he was elected Fellow of the British Academy. Professor Shlaim was born in Baghdad in 1945 and grew up in Israel. He completed an MSc (Econ.) in International Relations at LSE in 1970 and was a Lecturer then Reader in Politics at the University of Reading from 1970-87.
Hassan Hakimian is the new Director of the London Middle East Institute and a Reader in the Economics Department at SOAS. Previously, he was an Associate Dean at Cass Business School, City University. From 1993 and 2002, Hassan was taught at the SOAS Economics Department. His research is focused on the Middle East and covers human resources and demographic change, labour markets and employment policy, and globalisation and economic integration. His publications include Trade Policy and Economic Integration in MENA (2003). He is the founder and Series Editor for the Routledge series, Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa.