Speaker Bio

Emile Hokayem is the Director of Regional Security and Senior Fellow for Middle East Security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He specialises in regional politics, security and conflict analysis in the Middle East, including the national security and defence policies of the Middle Eastern states, the role of armed non-state actors, and the interests and involvement of external actors in the Middle East. He has authored and edited IISS Adelphi books on Syria, Egypt and regional security as well as IISS Strategic Dossiers on Iran, Gulf defence and security, and the Eastern Mediterranean. He regularly provides analysis on Middle East affairs to governments, the private sector and the media. Emile joined the IISS in 2010, based first at the IISS-Middle East in Bahrain and later at the London headquarters. Before that, he worked as the political editor and international affairs columnist of The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi, and from 2004 to 2008 as the research fellow for the Middle East at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC. His commentary has featured in the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Economist, Al-Hayat, Asharq Al-Awsat, Foreign Policy, Le Monde, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the BBC, NPR, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and other outlets.