About the Authors
Sanam Vakil is the deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, where she leads the ‘Future Dynamics in the Gulf’ project and the Iran Forum. Sanam’s research focuses on regional security, Arab Gulf geopolitics and domestic developments, and future trends in Iran’s domestic and foreign policy. She is also the James Anderson professorial lecturer in the Middle East Studies department at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS Europe) in Bologna, Italy. She received her BA in political science and history from Barnard College, Columbia University and her MA/PhD in international relations and international economics from Johns Hopkins University.
Neil Quilliam is an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House and CEO of Castlereagh Associates. He was the director of Chatham House’s ‘Future Dynamics in the Gulf’ project in 2018–19, and previously directed its ‘Syria and Its Neighbours’ policy initiative from 2015 to 2017. Before joining Chatham House in 2014, Neil served as senior MENA energy adviser at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, senior analyst at Control Risks, London, and senior programme officer at the United Nations University, Amman. Neil was the first recipient of the Prince of Wales and King Faisal Foundation Scholarship in 1998. He received his PhD in international relations from the University of Durham in 1997.