The Middle East: Covid-19, Falling Oil Prices, State-Society Dichotomy, & Conflicts

About this Event

The greater Middle East, stretching from Afghanistan to the Maghreb, persists with its turbulent evolution. Most of its constituent states have been ravaged by Covid-19 to different extents, including the wealthiest states who have additionally experienced a dramatic fall in their oil revenue, with the Islamic Republic of Iran also suffering from severe American sanctions. The regional volatility is further underpinned by an ongoing struggle between the forces of reform and the status quo, not to mention national and proxy rivalries and conflicts, in which extremist groups and major power interventionism play their part. The Middle East is an arena of frenemies and conflicts within conflicts. Where is the region heading, especially when considered against the backdrop of an emerging new cold war between the US and its allies, and China and its supporters, Russia in particular?

About the Speaker

Professor Amin Saikal AM, FASSA is Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences (affiliated with the Centre for Muslim States and Societies) at the University of Western Australia.

He has been a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in International Relations, and Visiting Fellow/professor to Princeton University, Cambridge University, the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, Zayed University, Nanyang Technological University (RSIS) and Indiana University. He is a Non-Resident Fellow of the Lichtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University, member of the International Advisory Council of the Institute of Islamic Civilization and Thought, International Islamic University of Malaya, and member of the Advisory Board of the Encyclopedia Princetoniensis.

He has won many prestigious awards, including the Order of Australia (AM) ‘for service to the international community and education through the development of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, and as an author and adviser’, and he is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.