Imad El-Anis

Role

Dr Imad El-Anis is an Associate Professor in International Relations and the Director of the Centre for Policy, Citizenship, and Society. He is an internationally-recognised specialist in the international relations and international political economy of the Middle East and North Africa, having authored and edited seven books, 15 peer-reviewed journal articles and four book chapters along with numerous reports. Dr El-Anis’ research is particularly important because it addresses pressing issues such as regional cooperation, economic development, and security in a region that is often characterised by conflict and instability. His work on economic integration and political cooperation in the MENA, for example, explores the potential for regional projects to foster stability and development.

Dr El-Anis is passionate about education and has teaching responsibilities at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the Department of Social and Political Sciences, and also supervises and examines PhD candidates. He is the module leader for the following undergraduate and postgraduate modules:

• The International Relations of the Middle East and North Africa (final year undergraduate)
• International Relations Theory (postgraduate)

He also teaches on a range of modules in the following areas: International Political Economy, Foreign Policy and International Security.

Along with teaching responsibilities and related administrative roles, Dr El-Anis is also a member of a number of School and university-wide committees, including the School of Social Sciences' Research and Innovation Committee, the Department of Social and Political Sciences' Research Committee, and NTU's Africa and Middle East Network steering group.

Career overview

Dr El-Anis has a BA (Hons) degree in International Relations (Nottingham Trent University, 2003), an MA in International Political Economy (University of Sheffield, 2005), a PhD in International Political Economy (Nottingham Trent University, 2008) and a PGCHE (Nottingham Trent University, 2009). He has taught in higher education for over twenty years and is a fellow of the British Higher Education Academy and a member of the following associations:

• The International Studies Association
• The British International Studies Association
• The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies
• The Council for British Research in the Levant

He appears regularly in major British and international media (including BBC News, Aljazeera, Channel 4 News, the British Press Association, Reuters, The Times, The Independent, The Guardian) commenting on Middle Eastern affairs.

Dr El-Anis has also made significant contributions to policy-making through his external consultancy work. He has worked as an Advisor to the COP-28 Presidency team at the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference, providing expert insights on climate change policies, and national interests and strategies. Additionally, he has consulted ambassadors for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and the Jordanian government, offering his expertise on Middle Eastern affairs and broader international relations. Dr El-Anis has also collaborated with the Jordanian Ministry of Environment and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to train civil servants in Jordan in carbon literacy, enhancing their understanding and capabilities in addressing climate change challenges.

Dr El-Anis is a passionate educator and has supervised academic research at undergraduate and postgraduate levels including in the following areas: the international relations of the Middle East and North Africa; International Political Economy; multilateral and bilateral trade liberalisation; globalisation; international institutions; crisis management; conflict resolution; and International Relations theory.

He has previously supervised 18 PhD candidates to completion for the following projects:

• 2024, The Political Economy of Energy Security and Nuclear Energy Proliferation in the Middle East.
• 2024, Using Multi-Level Governance to Explain the Migration Policy of Finland During the Migration Crisis.
• 2024,Understanding Climate Change Narratives in Central Asia: Power Dynamics in Vulnerable States.
• 2020, Food Security Resilience in Post-Conflict Libya.
• 2019, A Critical Investigation of Power and Ideology in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
• 2019, Inside Outside: The role of the Maghreb in migratory routes to Southern Europe.
• 2019, The Long Road Back from Camelot: The Minerva Initiative and the United States Quest for Lasting Peace.
• 2018, The Influence of US Foreign Aid on Jordan’s Foreign Policy Making.
• 2018, An Assessment of the Economic and Political Impacts of the Agadir Agreement: Promoting peace and stability in the Middle East and North Africa.
• 2016, The Impact of Globalisation on the Libyan Oil and Gas Sectors.
• 2016, Interrogating Frustration-Aggression from Environmental Degradation in the Niger Delta Conflict.
• 2016, Constructing a Tacit Alliance: The political economy of Iranian-Chinese relations.
• 2015, The Role of the Central Bank of Libya in an Era of Globalisation.
• 2015, National and International Crisis Management: A case study of Darfur.
• 2015 The United States Variable in the Security of the Persian/Arabian Gulf from 2000-2012.
• 2014, Libya and Britain: A Study of the History of British-Libyan Relations 1969-1979.
• 2013, A Critical Evaluation of the Securitization Process of EU-Russian Energy Relations: Actors, audiences and consequence.
• 2009, US-Jordanian Relations in the 2000s.

Dr El-Anis currently supervises the following PhD candidates:

• Hala Al-Hamawi - The Discrepancy Between Climate Ambition and Climate Finance Flows: The Case of Jordan.
• Ali Al-Otaibi - Mediation in the foreign policy arsenal of a small state: the Qatar case study, 1995-2021.
• Moe Hafez - A New Diplomatic Tool: Special Economic Zones and Regionalism in the Middle East.
• Haneeq Ahmed - Beyond Sustainable Development: Rethinking Strategies for Managing Antimicrobial Resistance in the Context of Global Health Systems and Pandemic Preparedness and Resilience.

And he has also acted as an Examiner for the following 16 PhD projects:

• Exploring the Nuances of the British Anti-Islam Populist Radical Right: Who Expresses Support for Them and Why? Nottingham Trent University,  26th January 2024.
• Online Activism in Iraq. Nottingham Trent University, 16^th December 2020.
• Penetration Through Fragmentation: A Model for Authoritarian Resilience in the Middle East: The Case of Syria. The University of Durham, 22^nd July 2020.
• The Role of the Private Sector in Countering Terrorism, a Corporate Social Responsibility Analysis. Manchester Metropolitan University, 19^th March 2019.
• Vision 2020 and the Private Sector: An analysis of late rentier development strategy in Oman. University of Durham, 10^th September 2018.
• The Disputed Areas from Powder Keg to Stability: The case of Kirkuk – applying territorial separation, University of Nottingham, 8^th March 2018.
• The Impacts of Social Networks on Saudi Arabian Media and Society, and Their Implications for Professional Journalism, Nottingham Trent University, 19^th January 2018.
• The GCC Common Market and the Internationalisation of SMEs: The case of Oman. King’s College London, 23^rd November 2017.
• A History of Saudi Foreign Policy – From Reaction to Proactivity. University of East Anglia, 29^th August 2017.
• The Politics of the International Law of Conflict Management: A case study of the India-Bangladesh land border dispute. Nottingham Trent University, 8^th May 2017.
• China’s Relations with the Arab Gulf Monarchies: Three case studies. University of Leicester, 16^th December 2016.
• Saudi Arabia and Communism During the Cold War: King Faisal’s foreign policy to the Soviet Union 1962-1975. University of Durham, 6^th December 2016.
• The Role of Renewable Energy Options in Easing Energy Security Concerns in Saudi Arabia. Nottingham Trent University, 24^th November 2016.
• The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood: From Participation to Boycott. University of East Anglia, 13^th July 2015.
• US Trade Policy in the Middle East: A comparative analysis between Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. King’s College London, 10^th December 2014.
• The Impact of the Collapse of the Soviet Union on Libyan Foreign Policy Between 1991-2003. Nottingham Trent University, 10^th September 2014.

Dr El-Anis has secured  funding for his research projects, including the following:

• July 2023, Council for British Research in the Levant, Project Grant. Value: £9,800. Project title: Climate change adaptation and resilience-building in refugee communities in Jordan.
• November 2022, Climate Social Science Network, Seed Corn Grant. Value: $17,248. Project title: Communicating climate change in a resource poor country: the case study of Jordan.

External activity

Dr El-Anis is also a reviewer for Oxford University Press, I. B. Tauris, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Wiley Blackwell, the University of Michigan Press, Sage, Democratization, and Political Studies Review.

Sponsors and collaborators

Current and previous sponsors include:

• The Climate Social Science Network
• The Council for British Research in the Levant
• The International Studies Association
• The British International Studies Association
• The European International Studies Association

Current and previous collaborators include:

• Professor Mehran Kamrava, Georgetown University, Qatar
• Professor Adham Saouli, Doha Institute of Graduate Studies, Qatar
• Professor Ashraf Mishrif, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
• Professor P. R. Kumaraswamy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
• Professor Lloyd Pettiford, Independent Researcher, UK
• Dr Marianna Poberezhskaya, NTU, UK
• Dr May Darwich, the University of Birmingham
• Dr Emel Parlar Dal, Marmara University, Türkiye
• Dr Christopher Farrands, NTU, UK
• Dr Roy Smith, NTU, UK
• Dr Mohammed Al-Khraisha, the University of Jordan, Jordan
• Dr Tarik Tell, the American University of Beirut, Lebanon
• Dr Islam Mofakarul, University of Greenwich, UK
• Dr Angelo Bisignano, the University of Nice, France
• Dr Rashd Swesi, NTU, UK
• Dr Ali Sen, Inonu University, Türkiye
• Dr Tarik Oumazzane, the University of Nottingham, UK
• Dr Ashraf Hamed, Al-Khoms University, Libya
• Dr Olga Khrushcheva, Manchester Metropolitan, UK
• Dr Selahhadin Bakan, Inonu University, Türkiye
• Dr Natasha Underhill, University of Cork, Republic of Ireland
• Dr Sahra Joharchi, NTU, UK
• Dr Jan Nathrath, Indepenent Researcher, Germany
• Dr Shun Watanabe, the University of Oxford
• Dr Wisam Hazimeh, the University of Jordan, Jordan