Asia and the Gulf War: Energy Security, Investments, and Strategic Choices

Featured Speakers: Dr. Sinem Cengiz, Sachi Sakanashi, Dr. Li Chen Sim, Dr. Chuchu Zhang, and Dr. Tingyi Wang.

Bios: 

Dr. Sinem Cengiz (moderator)

Non-Resident Fellow, Gulf International Forum

Dr. Sinem Cengiz is a Researcher at Qatar University’s Gulf Studies Center and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Washington-based Gulf International Forum. She is a regular columnist for Arab News newspaper and a member of the Women in Foreign Policy (DPK) Initiative. She is the author of the book Turkish-Saudi relations: Cooperation and Competition in the Middle East and co-editor of the book The Making of Contemporary Kuwait: Identity, Politics, and Its Survival Strategy. In her research, she focuses on the international relations of the Gulf and Turkey’s relations with the GCC states. Cengiz was born and raised in Kuwait and is currently based in Doha. She tweets at @SinemCngz.

Sachi Sakanashi

Director of the JIME Center (Middle Eastern Studies Center), Institute of
Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ)

Sachi SAKANASHI is the Director of the JIME Center (Middle Eastern Studies Center), Institute of
Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ). The fields of her research interest are contemporary Iranian politics, the energy industry of Iran, and Japan-Iran relations. She has worked for two years from 2000 to 2002 as a Cultural Attaché at the Japanese Embassy in Tehran. She was a visiting fellow at the Gulf Research Center, then based in Dubai, in 2008. Her recent publications include “Has the Twelve-Day War Shaken the Stability of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” in Gaiko (Foreign Affairs), published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in September 2025, and “Where did Iran make a mistake?” in Quarterly Arab, published by the Japan Arab Association in July 2025. She obtained her master’s degree in international relations from the University of Tokyo.

Dr. Li-Chen Sim

Assistant Professor, Khalifa University; Associate Fellow, Middle East Institute 

Dr. Li-Chen Sim is a specialist on hydrocarbon and low-carbon energies in the Gulf and wider Middle East and their intersection with international relations. Her research is applied to the political economies of development and 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 such as Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Energy Research & Social Science, Journal of Contemporary China, Policy Studies, and Asian Security, on forums hosted by the Atlantic Council and Harvard University’s Belfer Center, and in popular media like The South China Morning Post and Natural Gas Intelligence. She is active on the speaking circuit, having been a guest 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. With a PhD from Oxford, she is currently an Assistant Professor at Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates and an Associate Fellow at the US Middle East Institute.

Dr. Chuchu Zhang

Associate Professor and Deputy Director at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University

Dr. Chuchu Zhang is an Associate Professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs and Deputy Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University, China. She is also an Adjunct Professor at ESSCA School of Management, France. She received her PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on China-Middle Eastern relations, China’s foreign policy, and geoeconomics. She is the author of Islamist Party Mobilization: Tunisia’s Ennahda and Algeria’s HMS Compared, 1989-2014 (Palgrave, 2020). She has published in a number of peer-reviewed journals, including International Relations, The Pacific Review, Mediterranean Politics, Eurasian Geography and Economics, Middle East Policy, Environment and Planning: Economy and Space, Globalizations, and Pacific Focus.

Dr. Tingyi Wang

Research Fellow, Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy; Senior Associate Fellow, King Faisal Center

Dr. Tingyi Wang is a Research Fellow at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in the UAE. He is also a Senior Associate Fellow at the King Faisal Center in Saudi Arabia and an Academic Committee Member at the IIAS of Tsinghua University. He previously held a postdoctoral position at the University of Oxford and was a visiting fellow at Princeton University. His research focuses on Gulf geopolitics, Asia–Gulf relations, and great-power competition. His recent work examines how Gulf middle powers navigate intensifying geopolitical and geotechnological rivalry in an evolving global order.