Dr. Al-Ansari is Advisor to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Official Spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of State of Qatar. He is also President and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the CIPR.

He worked as the Director of the Policy Department at the Institute of Social and Economic Survey Research at Qatar University (QU). During his time at the university, he also worked as an assistant professor at QU’s Department of International Affairs from 2005 to 2019. This position was preceded by a researcher position in international relations at the office of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2005. He also took various roles at different civil society, governmental and semi-governmental institutions.

Dr. Al-Ansari has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Leeds University in the UK as well as a MA and PHD in Social Transformation from the Cathy Marsh Institute at the University of Manchester.

He specializes on GCC foreign and security policies, MENA regional issues, development/humanitarian aid, international security and conflict resolution. He is author of A Minority of Citizens published by Lambert Press in 2020. He wrote on “The Unbridgeable Gulf: Applying Bennett’s Model of Analysis to the 2017 Gulf Crisis” in Journal of Balkans and Near Eastern Studies in 2021, “The New Gulf Order: Crisis, Mediation, and Reconciliation” in Middle East Policy in 2021 and “Qatar’s Foreign Aid and Least Developed Countries” in Alternatives: Global, Local, Political in 2022. He has forthcoming articles on the issues of Qatar’s development aid, Qatar’s relations with Palestine, among others in the journals of Disasters and Third World Quarterly.

Dr. Al-Ansari has appeared as a political analyst on several media outlets including Al Jazeera, BBC Arabic, Russia Today, Al Araby TV, and Qatar TV. He also writes a weekly column for the Qatari daily newspaper Al Sharq.

He also sits on the Board of Trustees of the Center for Strategic Studies of the Qatar Armed Forces and the Advisory Board of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU).

Bülent Aras is Research Director of Center for International Policy Research. He is also Visiting Professor at Qatar University, Senior Scholar and Coordinator of the Conflict Resolution and Mediation stream at Istanbul Policy Center, and Research Professor of International relations at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. As a leading expert on Turkish foreign policy, Middle Eastern politics, and Central Asia, he has worked as a consultant for numerous organizations, such as Oxford Analytica, Microsoft, and Human Rights Watch. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the International Centre for Black Sea Studies form 2011 to 2014.

Aras was chairman of Center for Strategic Research (SAM) and Diplomacy Academy between 2010 and 2013 at Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. He taught in the Department of International Relations at Sabanci University and the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Istanbul Technical University. In 2010, he was Senior Visiting Professor of Turkish Studies at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford. He was a research scholar at the Paris-based European Union Institute of Security Studies in the summer of 2004, at Oxford University’s St. Anthony’s College in 2003, and at Indiana University’s Center for Eurasian Studies in 1998.

Aras has published 13 books both abroad and at home. His writings include Turkey’s State Crisis (Syracuse, 2021), Palestinian- Israeli Peace Process and Turkey (Novascience, 1998), New Geopolitics of Eurasia and Turkey’s Position (Frankcass, 2002), Turkey and the Greater Middle East (TASAM, 2004) and, as co-editor, Arab Spring, Turkey and Beyond (Routledge, 2016), Oil and Geopolitics in the Caspian Sea Region (Praeger, 1999), and September 11 and World Politics (FUP: 2004).

His articles have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers and have been translated into several languages, such as Persian, Russian and Arabic. His articles have appeared in Middle East Policy, Journal of Third World Studies, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Third World Quarterly, Political Science Quarterly, International Journal, Futures, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Mediterranean Quarterly, Nationalism and Ethnic Policy and Central Asia/Caucasus. He wrote a weekly column on foreign policy at Turkish daily Sabah daily in 2009 and 2010. He served on the editorial boards of Turkish Studies, Journal of Balkans and Near Eastern Studies, Insight Turkey, Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations, and Central Asia/Caucasus, International Law and Politics, Orta Asya ve Kafkasya Araştırmaları, Ortadoğu Etüdleri, Stratejik Öngörü, Perceptions.

Aras received his B.A (1994), MA (1996) and Ph.D. (1999) in Political Science and International relations at Boğaziçi University.

Dr. Zweiri is Senior Fellow at CIPR and Director of the Gulf Studies Center. Dr. Zweiri was the Head of the Humanities Department for five year during 2011-2016. Prior to joining Qatar University, Dr. Zweiri held numerous prestigious positions. He was a Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan. He also held the position of the Director of the Center for Iranian Studies at Durham University.

Dr. Zweiri has published over 80 academic publications that study the Gulf region, Iran and the wider Middle East. His research specialties include history, contemporary history and politics of the Gulf and the Middle East. Furthermore, Dr. Zweiri has numerous book publications that act as a vital educational resource, these books include “Contemporary Qatar: Examining State and Society,” “The 2017 Gulf Crisis: An Interdisciplinary Approach” and “Interdiscplinarity in World History: Continuity and Change.”

Realizing the need for a solid research platform on the Gulf and Area Studies Dr. Zweiri initiated the Journal of Gulf Studies, a journal that will be issuing volumes presenting research by experts on the Gulf from within the Gulf.

By fluent in three languages, Arabic, Persian and English, Dr. Zweiri is able to produce research to a wider audience, and is able to share his expertise on the region through research platforms as well as media and social media platforms. Dr. Al Zweiri has won numerous awards celebrating his media appearances, and his consultations to experts in the Gulf through his research and teachings.