Analyst
Alison Baily
Analyst, Middle East
Alison Baily joined Oxford Analytica in 2011. Alison holds an MA in Arabic and German from St John's College, Oxford. Alison is a fluent Arabic speaker and previously worked for BBC Monitoring. She has also worked for BBC African and Arabic radio networks, and BBC TV. Before joining the BBC, Alison worked on projects for the European Union in Brussels, and was a researcher at the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce in London.
Region Heads
Dr Hakim Darbouche
Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; Member of St Antony's College
Specialises in North African energy (with focus on natural gas), political economy and politics. Served as advisor on Mediterranean affairs to Brussels-based international organisation. Deputy editor of Mediterranean Politics. Publications have focused on North African gas markets, Euro-Med relations and the political economy of the Maghreb.
Edmund Herzig
Soudavar Professor of Persian Studies, Oxford
Research interests in Iranian history focus on the Safavid period (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries), and the contemporary period (history and politics of the Islamic Republic). He is currently working on a Cambridge History of Modern Inner Asia, on a study of Iranian foreign policy at the turn of the 21st century, and on the place of history in the formation of modern Iranian nationalism.
Dr Robin Ostle
Fellow in Modern Arabic and Dean of St John's College, University of Oxford
Formerly Lecturer in Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he was for three years Chairman of the Middle East Centre. Principal academic interests are in modern Arabic literature and modern trends in Islam.
Dr Philip Robins
Lecturer in Politics, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford
Specialises in the domestic politics and international relations of the modern Middle East, in particular Iraq and the Gulf states. Former Head of the Middle East Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House. Also worked as a journalist for the BBC and The Guardian in the Middle East.
