Contributors

Mr. Julian Tucker is a Research Fellow and Research Coordinator at the Stockholm China Center of ISDP. He recently completed his Master of Arts in Central Asian Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. He also pursued Uzbek language and history courses at the Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages in Uzbekistan. He holds a BA in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Languages from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Mr. Tucker’s research interests include the implications of regional authority and security structures in Central Asia for international development efforts. At the China Center his work will focus primarily on the One Belt One Road Initiative and Maritime Security in the South China Sea.

Farrukh Irnazarov is a Country Director for Uzbekistan at the Central Asian Development Institute since 2011. He has been working on Central Asia for 15 years and he conducted research projects for the World Bank, ADB, GIZ, GDN, USAID, IOM, Volkswagen and Gerda Henkel Foundations. In 2014-15, he was a Visiting Researcher at the Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA. Previously, Mr. Irnazarov worked for University of Applied Sciences Goettingen, National College of Ireland, Schwarzkopf and Henkel and Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of Uzbekistan. Mr. Irnazarov has experience in the area of labour migration, radicalization, economic transition and urbanization as well as public policy and good governance. Mr. Irnazarov also gives master classes on communication and interviewing in difficult environments. He is completing his PhD in International Studies at the University of Groningen and has two MSc degrees - one in Business Administration and Economics from Stockholm University (2006) and another one in International and European Relations from Linköping University (2005).

Mariya Y. Omelicheva is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science of the University of Kansas. She holds PhD (2007) in Political Science from Purdue University and JD in International Law (2000) from Moscow National Law Academy. Dr. Omelicheva's research and teaching interests include international and Eurasian security, counterterrorism and human rights, democracy promotion in the post-Soviet territory, Russia's foreign and security policy, and terrorism/crime nexus in Eurasia. She has published on these subjects in Terrorism and Political Violence, Europe-Asia Studies, International Journal of Human Rights, Central Asia Survey, Cambridge Review of International Relations, and other journals. She is the author of Counterterrorism Policies in Central Asia (Routledge 2011), which received an Outstanding Academic Title award by Choice, and Democracy in Central Asia: Competing Perspectives and Alternate Strategies (University Press of Kentucky 2015), and editor of Nationalism and Identity Construction in Central Asia: Dimensions, Dynamics, and Directions (Lexington 2015).

Ariel Cohen is a Senior Research Fellow at The Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at the Heritage Foundation. He received his Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Dr. Cohen is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, and Association for the Study of Nationalities. His research interests include the economic development and political reform in the former Soviet Republics, and continuing conflicts in the Middle East. He has on multiple occasions testified on Russian and Eurasian politics, economics, and law before the U.S. Congress. Dr. Cohen has also published numerous pieces of writing.

Chris (Christopher) Deliso is an American expert on the Balkan/Mediterranean region, with specializations in security, migration, intelligence, travel and culture deriving from over 20 years of in-field work and, ultimately, an Honours MPhil in Byzantine Studies from Oxford University (1999). He is the author of numerous books and articles in the academic and popular press, and has spoken frequently at international conferences for US governmental bodies in issues concerning Southeastern Europe.

Christopher Deliso is an American journalist and author concentrating on the Balkans. Over the past decade, Chris has established a dedicated presence in the Balkans, and published analytical articles on related topics in numerous relevant media outlets, such as UPI, the Economist Intelligence Unit, and Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst and Jane's Intelligence Digest. Chris is also the founder and director of the Balkan-interest news and current affairs website, www.balkanalysis.com, and the author of The Coming Balkan Caliphate: The Threat of Radical Islam to Europe and the West (Praeger Security International, 2007).

Christopher Deliso is an American journalist and author concentrating on the Balkans. Over the past decade, Chris has established a dedicated presence in the Balkans, and published analytical articles on related topics in numerous relevant media outlets, such as UPI, the Economist Intelligence Unit, and Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst and Jane's Intelligence Digest. Chris is also the founder and director of the Balkan-interest news and current affairs website, www.balkanalysis.com, and the author of The Coming Balkan Caliphate: The Threat of Radical Islam to Europe and the West (Praeger Security International, 2007).

Christopher Deliso is an American journalist and author concentrating on the Balkans. Over the past decade, Chris has established a dedicated presence in the Balkans, and published analytical articles on related topics in numerous relevant media outlets, such as UPI, the Economist Intelligence Unit, and Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst and Jane's Intelligence Digest. Chris is also the founder and director of the Balkan-interest news and current affairs website, www.balkanalysis.com, and the author of The Coming Balkan Caliphate: The Threat of Radical Islam to Europe and the West (Praeger Security International, 2007).

Courtney Freer is an assistant professorial research fellow at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is the author of Rentier Islamism: The Role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf Monarchies (Oxford University Press, 2018), the first English language book focused on the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf states and specializes in domestic politics and foreign policies of the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Ph.D., is the Baker Institute fellow for Kuwait. Working across the disciplines of political science, international relations and international political economy, his research examines the changing position of Persian Gulf states in the global order, as well as the emergence of longer-term, non-military challenges to regional security. He is a visiting fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre and an associate fellow at Chatham House in the United Kingdom.

Coates Ulrichsen has published extensively on the Gulf. His books include Insecure Gulf: the End of Certainty and the Transition to the Post-Oil Era (Columbia University Press, 2011) and The Political Economy of Arab Gulf States (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012). He is currently completing a book on Qatar and the Arab Spring and has been commissioned to write a textbook on the Gulf and international political economy. Coates Ulrichsen's articles have appeared several academic journals, and he consults regularly on Gulf issues for Oxford Analytica and the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre. He also authors a monthly column for Gulf Business News and Analysis.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Ph.D., is the Baker Institute fellow for Kuwait. Working across the disciplines of political science, international relations and international political economy, his research examines the changing position of Persian Gulf states in the global order, as well as the emergence of longer-term, non-military challenges to regional security. He is a visiting fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre and an associate fellow at Chatham House in the United Kingdom.

Coates Ulrichsen has published extensively on the Gulf. His books include Insecure Gulf: the End of Certainty and the Transition to the Post-Oil Era (Columbia University Press, 2011) and The Political Economy of Arab Gulf States (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012). He is currently completing a book on Qatar and the Arab Spring and has been commissioned to write a textbook on the Gulf and international political economy. Coates Ulrichsen's articles have appeared several academic journals, and he consults regularly on Gulf issues for Oxford Analytica and the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre. He also authors a monthly column for Gulf Business News and Analysis.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Ph.D., is the Baker Institute fellow for Kuwait. Working across the disciplines of political science, international relations and international political economy, his research examines the changing position of Persian Gulf states in the global order, as well as the emergence of longer-term, non-military challenges to regional security. He is a visiting fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre and an associate fellow at Chatham House in the United Kingdom.

Coates Ulrichsen has published extensively on the Gulf. His books include Insecure Gulf: the End of Certainty and the Transition to the Post-Oil Era (Columbia University Press, 2011) and The Political Economy of Arab Gulf States (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012). He is currently completing a book on Qatar and the Arab Spring and has been commissioned to write a textbook on the Gulf and international political economy. Coates Ulrichsen's articles have appeared several academic journals, and he consults regularly on Gulf issues for Oxford Analytica and the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre. He also authors a monthly column for Gulf Business News and Analysis.

Aviv Oreg is a veteran officer of the Israeli intelligence community, mostly covering issues related to the “Global Jihad” phenomenon and its most dominant entity factor – the al-Qaeda organization. His last position was as head of the “Al Qaeda and Global Jihad” desk in the IDF’s military intelligence. Since the summer of 2007, Mr. Oreg has served as the founding president of CeifiT, an investigative consulting firm composed of veterans of the Israeli intelligence community that offers comprehensive research, analysis, and counseling services of the global jihad phenomenon.

Dr. Meena Singh Roy is a Research Fellow and heads the West Asia Centre at the Institute for

Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA). Her area of specialisation is Central Asia and West Asia.

Prior to joining IDSA, she was a senior research scholar in the Department of African Studies,

Delhi University. She was associated with Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Oriental

and African Studies and London School of Economics for her research work. She was a visiting

Research Fellow with German Institute of Global and Area Studies Institute of Asian Studies

(GIGA) in 2014.

Dr. Singh Roy has several peer-reviewed articles and papers focused on West Asia and Central Asia. She

has also been involved in net assessment reports and strategic gaming on West Asia and Central

Asia. She has published a monograph titled The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: India

Seeking New Role in the Eurasian Regional Mechanism (2014), books titled, International and

Regional Security Dynamics: Indian and Iranian Perspectives (ed.) (July 2009); Emerging Trends

in West Asia: Regional and Global Implications (ed.), (2014), Persian Gulf 2016-17 India’s

Relations with the Region (co-edited with Prof. P. R. Kumaraswamy), 2017; Ideology, Politics

and New Security Challenges in West Asia (ed.) , 2018 and completed the joint Delhi Policy

Group and the IDSA Task Force report on West Asia in Transition in 2015.

Farrukh Irnazarov is a Country Director for Uzbekistan at the Central Asian Development Institute since 2011. He has been working on Central Asia for 15 years and he conducted research projects for the World Bank, ADB, GIZ, GDN, USAID, IOM, Volkswagen and Gerda Henkel Foundations. In 2014-15, he was a Visiting Researcher at the Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA. Previously, Mr. Irnazarov worked for University of Applied Sciences Goettingen, National College of Ireland, Schwarzkopf and Henkel and Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of Uzbekistan. Mr. Irnazarov has experience in the area of labour migration, radicalization, economic transition and urbanization as well as public policy and good governance. Mr. Irnazarov also gives master classes on communication and interviewing in difficult environments. He is completing his PhD in International Studies at the University of Groningen and has two MSc degrees - one in Business Administration and Economics from Stockholm University (2006) and another one in International and European Relations from Linköping University (2005).

Cory Bender is the Program Officer for Central Asia at the Institute for Global Engagement. He received a bachelor’s degree in Russian Studies and Political Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Before coming to IGE, Bender worked at the American Foreign Policy Council, and conducted research on Central Asia at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Political-Military Analysis. He also interned at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, where he coordinated public affairs and consular programs. In 2011, Bender studied abroad at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where he also worked as an Editorial Assistant at the Institute for Public Policy, a Bishkek-based think tank. He studied Russian in Kazan, Russia as a Critical Language Scholar and at Middlebury College, where he was a Kathryn Davis Fellow. He is originally from Chelmsford, Massachusetts and currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia.

Evgueni Novikov is an expert with extensive on-the-ground experience in Islam and considerable practical experience in the Central Asia and Persian Gulf regions. Dr. Novikov was one of top experts on Islamic affairs for the Soviet government. He is the author of a number of articles and of several books, including Gorbachev and the Collapse of the Soviet Communist Party: The Historical and Theoretical Background (Peter Lang, 1994) and Central Asian Responses to Radical Islam (AFPC, 2006).