Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine from the Middle Eastern and Gulf Perspective(s)

Zahra Babar (Moderator)

Zahra Babar is the Executive Director at the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University in Qatar. Previously, she was the Associate Director for Research at CIRS and has also worked at the International Labor Organization and the United Nations Development Program. Her current research interests include rural development, migration and labor policies, and citizenship in the Persian Gulf states. She has published several articles and chapters, most recently, “The Buying of Freedom: Migrant Workers and the Azad Visa in the Gulf,” (2024), “Migrants from Low-Income Countries have Higher Heat-Health Risk Profiles Compared to Native Workers in Agriculture,” in the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health (2023), “The 2022 World Cup and Migrants’ Rights in Qatar: Racialised Labour Hierarchies and the Influence of Racial Capitalism,” with N. Vora, in The Political Quarterly (2022), “Qatar, the World Cup, and the Global Campaign for Migrant Workers’ Rights,” in Football in the Middle East: State Society and the Beautiful Game, Ed. Abdullah Al Arian (Hurst/OUP 2022), among others.

Karim Haggag

Karim Haggag is the Director of the Middle East Studies Center at The American University in Cairo (AUC). He is a career Egyptian diplomat with over 25 years of service in Egypt’s diplomatic corps and is serving as a professor of practice at the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at AUC. Throughout his career, he has served in numerous capacities focusing on US-Egyptian relations, Middle East regional security, arms control and non-proliferation, and Arab-Israeli diplomacy. From 2002 to 2007; the Office of the Presidency in Cairo was responsible for US-Egyptian relations and economic policy coordination (2002-2007); and the political section of Egypt’s embassy in Washington (1997-2002) where he was responsible for politico-military affairs and the Middle East peace process. In addition to his diplomatic assignments, he was also a visiting professor with the Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington DC (2011-2013) and is currently a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. 

Saban Kardas

Saban Kardas is a research professor and program coordinator at the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University. He has published articles and book chapters on Turkish domestic and foreign policies, energy policies, and international security and has been an occasional contributor to international media. Previously he has worked at Middle East Technical University, Sakarya University, and TOBB University of Economics and Technology (currently on academic leave).

Li-Chen Sim

Li-Chen Sim is an Assistant Professor at Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates and a non-resident scholar at the US Middle East Institute. She is a specialist on hydrocarbon and low-carbon energies in the Gulf and their intersection with international relations. Her research is applied to the political economy of development and to foreign policy implications for Gulf-Asia exchanges and Russia-Middle East interactions. Her most recently published books include Asian Perceptions of Gulf Security (Routledge, 2023), Low Carbon Energy in the Middle East and North Africa (Palgrave 2021), and External Powers and the Gulf Monarchies (Routledge, 2018). Her articles have appeared in top-tier academic journals including Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Energy Research & Social Science, Journal of Contemporary China, and Policy Studies. She has been a guest speaker at Chatham House London, Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington DC, Emirates Center for Strategic Studies & Research, Foreign Service Institute in Washington DC, INSEAD Abu Dhabi, and Japan’s Institute of Energy Economics among others.

Nikolay Kozhanov

Nikolay Kozhanov is a research associate professor at the Gulf Studies Center of Qatar University. He is also a nonresident scholar at the Economics and Energy Program of the Middle East Institute and a consulting fellow at the Russia and Eurasia Programme of Chatham House. Kozhanov’s research focuses on the geopolitics of the Gulf’s hydrocarbons, Russian foreign policy in the Middle East, and Iran’s economic and international relations.