H.E. Dr. Salem Alhajraf, former Minister of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy of the State of Kuwait, is a Distinguished Fellow at the Gulf International Forum with over 30 years of experience in the energy field, mainly in the renewable energy, clean energy transition, and energy policy domain. He has previously held several senior roles, including the Deputy Director General of the Kuwait Foundation for Advancement (KFAS) and the Executive Director of the Energy and Building Research Center at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). He is also the founder and project manager of the Shagaya Renewable Energy Park Initiative, a mega renewable energy project in Kuwait.
Dr. Alhajraf has served as a research fellow at several leading think tanks, including the Center for Energy Studies and the Edward P. Djerejian Center for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy (BIPP), the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University (CGEP), and the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics (LSE). He is also a research scientist at the Energy and Building Research Center at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). His current research focuses on the impact of the clean energy transition on hydrocarbon-based economies, as well as the broader energy economics in the Gulf.
Dr. Alhajraf earned his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering between 1993 and 2001, and earned an MBA in 2007.
Dr. Muhanad Seloom is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at Gulf International Forum. He is Assistant Professor of International Politics and Security at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter.
His research examines how states authorize power through intelligence institutions and emerging technologies, with particular attention to the Gulf, Iraq, and the wider Middle East. He is the author of Labelling Ethno-Political Groups as Terrorists: The Case of the PKK in Türkiye (Routledge, 2025); his second book, The History and Politics of Iraqi Intelligence, 1915–2025, is under review at Cambridge University Press.
Before academia, Dr. Seloom advised the U.S. Department of State, the UK Ministry of Defence, and Qatar’s National Cyber Security Agency, among other governmental bodies. He speaks Arabic, English, and Kurdish, and appears regularly on Al Jazeera, CNN, BBC, and Arabic-language television.
Dr. Robert Geist Pinfold is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at Gulf International Forum and Lecturer in Defence Studies (International Security) at King’s College London. Rob joined the Defence Studies Department and the School of Security Studies in 2025. Previously, he was a Lecturer in Peace and Security at Durham University. Rob was awarded his PhD in War Studies from King’s College London in 2018.
In addition to his role at King’s, Rob is a Research Fellow at the Peace Research Center Prague, based at Charles University in Prague, and an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Rob’s work has been published in numerous academic journals, such as the European Journal of International Security, the Journal of Global Security Studies, International Studies Perspectives, and the Journal of Strategic Studies. His full-length book manuscript, Understanding Territorial Withdrawal: Israeli Occupations and Exits, was published by Oxford University Press in 2023.
Alongside his academic outputs, he publishes regularly in Foreign Policy and War on the Rocks and has provided regular commentary for the BBC, France 24, RTE News, Al Jazeera, and many others. Rob is a scholar of international security. His work engages with several key themes, including: Israeli foreign and security policy, The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, Contemporary Syria, Iranian foreign and security policy, Grand strategy, Military occupation and exit dilemmas, and Territorial disputes.
Dr. Yasmina Abouzzohour is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at Gulf International Forum. She is also a Research Scholar and Lecturer in Politics at Princeton University. Previously, she was a Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Middle East Initiative and an Instructor in Politics at the University of Oxford.
Dr. Abouzzohour is a comparative political scientist specializing in trust in the military, military-society relations, and public opinion in the Middle East and North Africa. Her research has appeared in academic journals, edited volumes, and policy platforms, including publications on trust in the military (Journal of North African Studies, 2023), regime behavior (Middle East Journal, 2022), and monarchical resilience (Order from Chaos, 2022). She has been featured in BBC, the Washington Post, Deutsche Welle, and the Financial Times.
Her work has been supported by the American Political Science Association, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Andrew Mellon Fund, the University of Oxford, the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, the Project on Middle East Political Science, Harvard University, and Princeton University, among others.
In addition to her academic work, she has advised government agencies and international organizations, including the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the European Commission, and the United Kingdom Foreign Office. She previously directed the North Africa desk at Oxford Analytica, where she oversaw risk assessments and provided strategic insights on economic governance and regional security.
At Princeton, she teaches courses on political and economic development and is completing a book on monarchical resilience, analyzing the interactions between monarchical institutions and societal groups during periods of upheaval.
Dr. Zarqa Parvez is a Non-Resident Fellow at Gulf International Forum. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgetown Qatar and a Visiting Faculty at HBKU. Dr. Parvez has held teaching and research roles at several institutions, including Adjunct Assistant Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar, Adjunct Lecturer at Northwestern University in Qatar, Lusail University, and Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), where she also served as a Researcher, Instructor, Academic Advisor, and Research Assistant within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Her academic work and teaching span a range of subjects, including nationalism and identity in the Gulf, gender and politics, and the intersection of digital media and cultural narratives. She has also contributed extensively to academic service, serving on university committees, advising MA programs, and coordinating academic conferences and student engagement initiatives.
Dr. Parvez’s research focuses on politics, gender, state-society relations, and development in the Gulf region, with particular attention to questions of national identity and women’s roles in state formation.
She holds a PhD in Government and International Affairs from Durham University, where her dissertation examined “Women and National Identity in Qatar.” She earned an MSc in State, Society, and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in Qatar, where she majored in International Politics and minored in Arab Regional Studies.
Dr. Yousuf Hamed Al Balushi is a Non-Resident Fellow at Gulf International Forum and the Founder Smart Investment Gateway. Dr. Al Balushi is a leading economist in Oman. He has over 25 years of professional experience at the Central Bank of Oman and at the Supreme Council for Planning, Oman Vision 2040 office and was appointed as an advisor on Foreign Direct Investment working in the International Monetary Fund. Acted as an Advisor for Oman to IFC.
Yousuf obtained his PhD in Economics from King’s College London (University of London). In his thesis he examined the impact of FDI on the efficiency of the private sector and economic development in Oman. In addition to FDI, his interests cover monetary and fiscal policies, foreign trade, and private sector development.
As Chief Economist for the Oman Vision 2040 taskforce, this appointment saw him leading teams throughout the country to examine sector-wide business opportunities in order to develop a macroeconomic framework and public-private partnerships development plan.
He is an established contributor to various business and policy forums and has published business and economic issues, notably his 2022 monograph “Omani Vision 2040… The pressures of questions and the entitlements of answers” and 2018 monograph “Omani economy: globalization and the winds of change” and co-editor of “Economic diversification in Gulf countries: the private sector as an engine of growth” and “Economic diversification in Gulf countries: comparing global challenges” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
Dr. Aziz Alghashian is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at Gulf International Forum. He is a researcher from Saudi Arabia who focuses on the kingdom’s foreign policy strategies. He is the geopolitics senior research fellow and Director of Research with ORF Middle East in Dubai. He is known, in particular, as a specialist for Saudi-Israeli as well as for Arab-Israeli relations. Aziz joined the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he underwent Officer Training before obtaining his undergraduate degree in International Relations and Global Security at Nottingham Trent University, followed by an MA in Diplomacy and International Relations.
Dr. Alghashian has taken his specific research focus on Saudi-Israeli relations to the next level by starting a PhD program at the University of Essex, examining the nuances of Saudi Arabia’s policies towards Israel. Over the years, he has gained vast teaching experience by conceptualizing lectures on Middle East Politics, International Relations of the Middle East, Theories and Concepts of International Relations, and Political Theory. From 2019-2021, Aziz was appointed as a lecturer of International Relations at the University of Essex. Alongside his research work, Aziz is a regular participant of various track-2 dialogue initiatives. He is invited frequently to provide analysis on current Saudi affairs in Saudi and international media.
Dr. Ali Alkandari is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at Gulf International Forum. He is a history professor at Kuwait University specializing in Islamist movements, social transformations, and the contemporary history of the Gulf. Dr. Alkandari holds Masters of Arts in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and received his PhD from the University of Exeter in 2014 in Arabic and Islamic Studies. He is currently the head of Kuwait University Faculty Association KUFA. He also served as a member of the National Union of Kuwaiti Students from 2010 to 2013, serving as its president during his final year. He has appeared widely as a contributor on Gulf media networks, including Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Jazeera English, Mont Carlo, and Al Arabi.
Professor Daniel Serwer (Ph.D., Princeton) directs the Conflict Management Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is also a Senior Fellow at its Center for Transatlantic Relations and affiliated as a Scholar with the Middle East Institute. His current interests focus on the civilian instruments needed to protect U.S. national security as well as transition and state-building in the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans. His Righting the Balance: How You Can Help Protect America was published in November 2013 by Potomac Books. Formerly vice president for centers of peacebuilding innovation at the United States Institute of Peace, he led teams there working on rule of law, religion, economics, media, technology, security sector governance and gender. He was also vice president for peace and stability operations at USIP, where he led its peacebuilding work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and the Balkans and served as Executive Director of the Hamilton/Baker Iraq Study Group. Serwer has worked on preventing interethnic and sectarian conflict in Iraq and has facilitated dialogue between Serbs and Albanians in the Balkans. As a minister-counselor at the U.S. Department of State, Serwer directed the European office of intelligence and research and served as U.S. special envoy and coordinator for the Bosnian Federation, mediating between Croats and Muslims and negotiating the first agreement reached at the Dayton peace talks. From 1990 to 1993, he was deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, leading a major diplomatic mission through the end of the Cold War and the first Gulf War. Serwer holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Princeton University, an M.S. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Haverford College. He speaks Italian, French and Portuguese, as well as beginning Arabic.
Dr. Mehran Kamrava is a Member of the Advisory Board. He is a Professor of Government at Georgetown University Qatar. Dr. Kamrava is the author of a number of journal articles and books, including, most recently, Righteous Politics: Power and Resilience in Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2023); A Dynastic History of Iran: From the Qajars to the Pahlavis (Cambridge University Press, 2022); Triumph and Despair: In Search of Iran’s Islamic Republic (Oxford University Press, 2022); A Concise History of Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2020); Troubled Waters: Insecurity in the Persian Gulf (Cornell University Press, 2018); Inside the Arab State (Oxford University Press, 2018); The Impossibility of Palestine: History, Geography, and the Road Ahead (Yale University Press, 2016); Qatar: Small State, Big Politics (Cornell University Press, 2015); The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War, 3rd ed. (University of California Press, 2013); and Iran’s Intellectual Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2008). His edited books include The Sacred Republic: Power and Institutions in Iran (2020); The Routledge Handbook of Persian Gulf Politics (2020); The Great Game in West Asia: Iran, Turkey, and the Southern Caucasus (2017); Gateways to the World: Port Cities in the Persian Gulf (2016); Fragile Politics: Weak States in the Greater Middle East (2016); Beyond the Arab Spring: The Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle East (2015); The Political Economy of the Persian Gulf (2012); The Nuclear Question in the Middle East (2012); and The International Politics of the Persian Gulf (2011). Kamrava is the Series Editor for the Contemporary Issues in the Middle East series of Syracuse University Press, and the Iran from the Pahlavis to the Present series at Hurst Publishers and Oxford University Press.
Ambassador Patrick Nickolas Theros is a Strategic Advisor and Senior Fellow at the Gulf International Forum. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the State of Qatar from 1995-1998. Prior to his appointment, he served as Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, responsible for the coordination of all U.S. Government counterterrorism activities outside the United States. From 1991-1993, Ambassador Theros served as the Political Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of Central Command (CENTCOM).
Ambassador Theros joined the Foreign Service in 1963, and served in a variety of positions in Washington D.C., Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Nicaragua and Syria, including charge d’affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassies in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
In 1999, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah Al-Thani awarded Ambassador Theros the Qatar Order of Merit for his efforts in service of the U.S.-Qatar bilateral relationship. His commitment to national service also earned him the President’s Meritorious Service Award and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service (1992). Ambassador Theros has also earned four Superior Honor Awards, the highest awards for distinguished service given by the Foreign Service.
After his retirement from the Foreign Service Ambassador Theros assumed the office of President of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council in March 2000 until his retirement in 2017.
Ambassador Theros’ personal commitment to community and public service earned him the rank of Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem (1999), as well as the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom (2005).
In addition to his duties as President of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council, Ambassador Theros is also active in the following organizations: The Middle East Policy Council, Board of Directors; The Council of Foreign Relations, Member; The Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, Member; and The American Academy of Diplomacy, Member.
Ambassador Theros graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 1963. He has done advanced studies at the American University in Washington, D.C., the Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua, the Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia, and the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He is married to Aspasia (nee Pahigiannis) and has three children. He speaks and reads Spanish, Arabic and Greek professionally.
Dr. Yagoub Al-Kandari is member of the Advisory Board. Dr. Al-Kandari is a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology. He is the Director of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Center in Kuwait University. He was the former Dean of the College of Social Sciences. Dr. Al-Kindari was a Chief Editor of several academic journals and research centers in the GCC states. Also, he served as Dean Assistant of College of Graduate Studies of Academic and Acting Chair of Sociology and Social Work Department at Kuwait University. He has 145 published works (30 books and has 70 published scientific papers in refereed journals with many other publications in conferences proceedings). Dr. Al-Kandari is a member of many local, regional, and international associations. He received his Master and Ph.D. degrees from The Ohio State University, USA, Major in Anthropology. He is the Recipient of six scientific awards; one of them is the State Award for Scientific Production Award.
