IBBC advisory council member, Dr Lina Khatib, has joined the University of Oxford’s Martin School where she has been appointed Director of Global Policy and Systemic Risks at the Security Futures Lab. She is a leading authority on the Middle East and international affairs who has directed some of the world’s most respected policy research programmes. 

Most recently she was Director of the SOAS Middle East Institute and Professor of Practice at SOAS University of London. Before that she led the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, where she is now an Associate Fellow, and directed the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. She co-founded and led the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. She is also a visiting scholar with the Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. She has published several books and writes and comments widely on international affairs. She is a member of the advisory councils of the Iraq Britain Business Council and the Syria Britain Business Council. 

Dr Khatib comments “At Oxford, I want to help develop new ways of thinking about security that reflect how geopolitical, technological, economic, and climate risks increasingly intersect, and to translate that thinking into more effective policy responses. Iraq, Syria, and the wider Middle East offer important lessons about state resilience, governance, conflict, climate stress, and adaptation to rapid change, while also being directly affected by shifts in the wider international system. I hope my work at the Security Futures Lab can help bring these experiences into global policy debates while also generating ideas that are relevant to the challenges facing the region.”

https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/security-futures

Mr Christophe Michels, MD IBBC says ‘we are delighted that Dr Khatib has been appointed to this prestigious and important role at Oxford. Lina has been a strong advisor and supporter of IBBC, recently she regularly presented her prescient insights to our members during the geopolitical situation in the Gulf and her US insights into the conflict. At our Mansion House reception in October, she launched a joint Iraq- Syrian business council initiative to drive business synergies across the Levant countries. We are excited for what Lina’s new role will bring to everyone working in the region ‘