Dania Thafer PhD; Executive Director, Gulf International Forum

Dr. Dania Thafer is the Executive Director of Gulf International Forum, an institute based in Washington, DC which analyses political, economic, social, and security issues for the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Iran, Iraq and Yemen. She is also a Professorial Lecturer at the School of Foreign Service’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. She is an expert in the Gulf region’s security, US-Gulf relations, and the political economy of the GCC states. Dr. Thafer has a new book titled Creative Insecurity: Institutional Inertia and Youth Potential in the GCC that was published by Hurst Co. and Oxford University Press this year.