The Middle East and North Africa group will focus on emerging threats in the region, challenges posed by jihadist movements and terrorist organizations, as well as CAF presence in stabilization engagements and assistance to local security forces.
Team Leads
Thomas Juneau, University of Ottawa
Thomas Juneau is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. His research focuses mostly on the Middle East, in particular on Iran and Yemen. He is also interested in Canadian foreign and defence policy, in the relationship between intelligence and policy, and in international relations theory. He is the author of Squandered Opportunity: Neoclassical realism and Iranian foreign policy (Stanford University Press, 2015), editor of Strategic Analysis in Support of International Policy-Making: Case studies in achieving analytical relevance (Rowman Littlefield, 2017), co-editor of Iranian Foreign Policy since 2001: Alone in the world (Routledge, 2013), and co-editor of Asie centrale et Caucase: Une sécurité mondialisée (Presses de lUniversité Laval, 2004). He has also published many articles and book chapters on the Middle East, international relations theories and pedagogical methods, notably in International Affairs, International Studies Perspectives, Political Science Quarterly, Middle East Policy, Orbis, International Journal, and Canadian Foreign Policy Journal. Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, he worked for the Department of National Defence from 2003 to 2014, chiefly as a strategic analyst covering the Middle East. He was also a policy officer and an assistant to the deputy minister.
Link to Personal Website or CV:
Aisha Ahmad, University of Toronto
Aisha Ahmad is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Co-Director of the Islam and Global Affairs Initiative at the Munk School of Global Affairs. In 2012, she was a fellow at the Belfer Center on Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her research interests include International Relations, Comparative Politics, state failure, political Islam, political economy, and peace building. Her work explores the political economy of Islamist power in weak and failed states. She has conducted fieldwork on conflict dynamics in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Lebanon, Mali, and Kenya. Her 2017 book with Oxford University Press, titled Jihad Co.: Black Markets and Islamist Power, explores the economic drivers of these complex security crises.
Link to Personal Website or CV:
Team Members
- Marie Joelle Zahar, Université de Montréal
- Mara Revkin, Georgetown University
- Mike Fleet, Institute on Governance
- Farzan Sabet, The Graduate Institute, Geneva
- Ousmane Diallo, Balsillie School of International Affairs
- Isabelle Roy
- Dennis Horak, Former Canadian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
- MGen Denis Thompson
- Mia Bloom, Georgia State University
GBA+ Members
- Tammy George, York University
- Leigh Spanner, Mount Saint Vincent University